Opinion: The sum of Australia's future
By Professor Anthony Dooley
Mathematics has been a hot topic of late, and once again it continues to divide commentators.
Just last month the National Assessment Program test results for Australian school students in Years Three to Nine were released. Most of the publicity told a story of improvement, with 90% of our students meeting the Australian standards for numeracy and literacy. What these results didn't tell us is that although we are ‘meeting' our own standards, we are falling behind international benchmarks dramatically, with the US and UK significantly outperforming our own young people1.
Although Year Nine standards seem acceptable, the picture in Years 11 and 12 is rather grim. For example, between 1995 and 2007 the number of Australian Year 12 advanced mathematics students dropped 25%2. On top of this, university mathematics majors dropped 15% between 2001 and 20072, which from my perspective, is the most frightening statistic of all.
But why is mathematics so important?
At the most fundamental level, mathematicians search for patterns that can explain and predict everyday phenomena, from the spread of disease, to the prediction of natural disasters.
With technology, the economy and society changing so rapidly, we need versatile and highly skilled minds to deal with the range of challenges we face. Career-wise, a strong knowledge of maths can already open any number of doors. From engineering and computer sciences, to medical research, mathematics is a core skill for a number of industries. But we soon could be running on empty. Australian Government figures that show that demand for mathematicians and statisticians rose by 50% between 1998 and 2005. With such a discrepancy between supply and demand, you don't have to have a degree in mathematics to know that we have a problem. How can we close the gap between the opportunities out there, and the number of Australians able to answer the call?
As a teacher myself, I am well aware of the responsibility I have to my students. Even in a university context, which is less about strict curriculums and more about guidance and exploration, I know that it‘s my role to provide inspiration and motivation for what can often feel like a tough slog. If this applies to students already committed to studying maths, we need to seriously reflect on the impact of educators during the early years of learning, when role models are all the more important.
Alarmingly, in 2007, 40% of senior maths teachers did not have a three-year university degree in mathematics. Without the proper training in this complex topic, how can we expect our teachers to feel confident championing maths in the classroom?
To have any chance of shifting the mathematics landscape in our schools, the Government's ‘Educatio
Similarly, we need more highly skilled mathematical minds dedicated to teaching and research in our universities. To date, a lack of Government funding has resulted in many of our great mathematicians heading off-shore, and a prime example of this is Australian-born Professor Terence Tao.
Following a short stint on the Australian university circuit, Professor Tao left Australia for UCLA in the US where he would have the opportunity to work alongside the world's best mathematicians. With a Fields Medal (the equivalent of a Nobel Peace Prize for Mathematics) under his belt, Professor Tao is an international mathematical superstar who by age eight was already finished with Year 12 maths courses.
In a public lecture last month, Professor Tao wowed 500 Sydney-siders as he explained the many ways that global mathematicians have tried to solve the mystery of Prime Numbers. From music to dot paintings, the excitement which buzzed through the room as Terry romped through a brief history of the Primes was a powerful reminder of the way maths makes sense of the world in which we live.
However, one-off lectures aren't enough. As teachers and professors, we need to do more to help the community understand the creative techniques which lie within the modern mathematician's toolkit, and the infinite possibilities which await those who can grasp numbers. But we can't do it alone.
There are three key ways to solve Australia's mathematics problem. Firstly, we need to improve primary and secondary teaching standards to encourage student enthusiasm at a young age: raising salaries is a blunt instrument, but it would be a good starting pointAt the same time, we also need to increase tertiary funding, which will keep our mathematical talent on Australian soil and help nurture numerate students into fully-fledged mathematicians and scientists. Finally, we must build stronger relationships between the education and commercial sectors: giving the community a strong signal about how maths can be used to crack creative and industrial challenges. Bringing the worlds of school, university and work closer together is a clear solution - we just need to do the maths!
1. Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study - http://www.acer
2. Source http://www.amsi
Professor Anthony Dooley is Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New South Wales
