Mathematics in School

2 Mathematics in School, November 2021 The MA website www.m-a.org.uk In 2020, Rob Eastaway and I produced a short series of podcasts called Puzzling Maths. As part of the series, we invited guests from a range of interesting professions to tell us what part maths plays in their professional lives. We had no prior knowledge of our guests’ views or experiences of maths, so while this is not a large enough sample to be representative of the population at large, the guests do give a fascinating insight into how maths is viewed and utilized in different careers. The interviews were wide-ranging, but for the edited versions below we have picked out each guest’s answer to just three of the questions: • What maths do you do in your job? • How was maths for you at school? • If you could teach maths for a week…? As youwill read fromthe transcripts, each guest gave their own unique slant on maths, but some common themes emerged. Most notably, guests frequently referenced the importance of making school maths feel relevant to everyday life and work, and how in some cases they were let down by the curriculum. Several also referred to how important studying statistics had turned out to be. (See Note 1 at the end of the article on page 4.) ANNA FOSTER BBC Radio 5Live presenter, journalist What maths do you do in your job? Maths crops up all the time in my job. Many of the stories we do involve maths, mostly when talking about money, but also statistics, without which we couldn’t tell that story in a context that means something to our listeners. People, including politicians, always highlight the numbers that are most favourable to them. There’s a responsibility on journalists to make sure those numbers make sense and also to make sure that, if only one figure is quoted, we put that in context or present other figures. People often criticise journalists for joking that they are no good at maths. There’s some truth in that accusation, but it’s not that journalists are boasting about their poor maths, it’s more an apology. As journalists we are expected to know everything about everything, but while you might be able to busk a knowledge of English or history, it’s very hard to busk in maths the same way. And when I’m doing maths, I like to do it in peace so I can concentrate. That’s not possible when I’m in the middle of broadcasting a radio programme. How was maths for you at school? I wouldn’t describe myself as a maths person but I was in the top stream, I did GCSE in November of Year 11 (and got an A) and then did a stats GCSE in June with my other exams (and got a B). I never studied maths again because at the time I had a narrower view of what skills were involved in journalism. If I’d chosen to do A Level maths, I would have had to sacrifice something else. It would be nice if later in life there were opportunities to do a maths- related qualification that wasn’t as all-consuming as an A level (see Note 2). It’s only as an adult when making sense of a pay slip or working out a mortgage that you see the importance of the maths that you did or didn’t pay attention to. If ou could teach maths for a week…? I think that when you’re school age you want to know what that real world context is. When might I need to calculate the circumference of a circle or use algebra in the real world? If I were to teach a maths lesson, I would like to explore its real world applications, following the example of people like Martin Lewis, the Money Saving Expert. He’s spent a lot of time looking at the concepts of money and personal finances being taught to pupils in a way they will understand. Far too many of us as adults are mathematically illiterate about things we ought to know about. ACROSS THE PROFESSIONS by Andrew Jeffrey