Manitoba students are so unprepared for university calculus that half of them are either failing the first-year class or withdrawing long before the final exam takes place.
And how well they did in high school pre-calculus doesn't seem to indicate whether they'll succeed in university calculus.
Darja Barr, a University of Manitoba math professor, analyzed 15 years of marks for students who took pre-calculus in a Grade 12 Manitoba classroom and introductory calculus at her university.
She found high school grades were a poor indicator of future success, which she said is disturbing, since Grade 12 pre-calculus is designed to prepare students for university calculus.
"It really does hit students like a ton of bricks when they get to university," Barr said.
In the last year of her study, she found high-achieving students in one Winnipeg school division — who earned an A or A+ in pre-calculus — were as likely to fail calculus in university as they were to earn another A or A+.
A professor for 13 years, Barr knows it's common for A students in high school to drop one grade point when they enter post-secondary.
Students baffled
But too many students in her classes are barely treading water — and she argues Manitoba's education system deserves some of the blame.
"I want to figure out why the disconnect is happening," said Barr, who turned her research into a PhD thesis in education this year.
"I would have students come to me after a midterm and say, 'I don't understand what's happening. I got 90s in high school.'"
Barr's work aligns with other Canadian research showing deteriorating math scores countrywide. Students also struggle in other subjects, but the problem is most pronounced in mathematics and the sciences, she said.
In response to her own research, Barr asked the commission reviewing Manitoba's kindergarten-to-Grade-12 school system to improve the pre-calculus curriculum so students are prepared to continue their math education.
She worries the status quo is discouraging people from careers in mathematics and the sciences.
Barr analyzed the grades of more than 12,000 students who took first-year introductory calculus at the U of M from 2001 to 2015, excluding students who voluntarily withdrew from the class and who did not go to high school in Manitoba.
She found the percentage of students with a final grade of C or better went to around 50 per cent of the class in 2015, from 65-70 per cent of students five years earlier.
Her data shows students who scored well in calculus also did well in pre-calculus. However, there was no correlation between students who struggled in university math and their previous pre-calculus mark.
In fact, students with good grades in pre-calculus (4.5 GPA) were almost as likely to fail as students with poorer grades (2 GPA).
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mani...es-calculus-pre-calculus-university-1.5399553
And how well they did in high school pre-calculus doesn't seem to indicate whether they'll succeed in university calculus.
Darja Barr, a University of Manitoba math professor, analyzed 15 years of marks for students who took pre-calculus in a Grade 12 Manitoba classroom and introductory calculus at her university.
She found high school grades were a poor indicator of future success, which she said is disturbing, since Grade 12 pre-calculus is designed to prepare students for university calculus.
"It really does hit students like a ton of bricks when they get to university," Barr said.
In the last year of her study, she found high-achieving students in one Winnipeg school division — who earned an A or A+ in pre-calculus — were as likely to fail calculus in university as they were to earn another A or A+.
A professor for 13 years, Barr knows it's common for A students in high school to drop one grade point when they enter post-secondary.
Students baffled
But too many students in her classes are barely treading water — and she argues Manitoba's education system deserves some of the blame.
"I want to figure out why the disconnect is happening," said Barr, who turned her research into a PhD thesis in education this year.
"I would have students come to me after a midterm and say, 'I don't understand what's happening. I got 90s in high school.'"
Barr's work aligns with other Canadian research showing deteriorating math scores countrywide. Students also struggle in other subjects, but the problem is most pronounced in mathematics and the sciences, she said.
In response to her own research, Barr asked the commission reviewing Manitoba's kindergarten-to-Grade-12 school system to improve the pre-calculus curriculum so students are prepared to continue their math education.
She worries the status quo is discouraging people from careers in mathematics and the sciences.
Barr analyzed the grades of more than 12,000 students who took first-year introductory calculus at the U of M from 2001 to 2015, excluding students who voluntarily withdrew from the class and who did not go to high school in Manitoba.
She found the percentage of students with a final grade of C or better went to around 50 per cent of the class in 2015, from 65-70 per cent of students five years earlier.
Her data shows students who scored well in calculus also did well in pre-calculus. However, there was no correlation between students who struggled in university math and their previous pre-calculus mark.
In fact, students with good grades in pre-calculus (4.5 GPA) were almost as likely to fail as students with poorer grades (2 GPA).
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/mani...es-calculus-pre-calculus-university-1.5399553
