The rector of Moscow State University spoke about the low level of school preparation in mathematics
Academician Viktor Sadovnichy approved the use of calculators in exams for 9th graders. Rector of Moscow State University M.V. Lomonosov spoke at the opening of the All-Russian Congress of Teachers and Teachers of Mathematics, dedicated to the 270th anniversary of Moscow University, with an analysis of the current education system, its pros and cons.
Having informed the audience about the preparation of a new concept of mathematical education, which was entrusted to Moscow State University. Lomonosov, Viktor Antonovich noted that it will include all levels of education, in particular, it will be closely linked to school standards.
Speaking about the problems of the modern school level of education, the rector of Moscow State University could not help but recall the Unified State Exam.
“Everyone knows the statistics of the Unified State Exam in the country,” he said, “the level of the number of people taking specialized level mathematics is declining, which is why we are raising questions about updating the concept of mathematical education. My position on the Unified State Exam is well known. This step did not improve the quality of mathematics education, but rather contributed to a narrowing of mathematical content and a decrease in understanding.»
As a mathematics teacher at a university, Viktor Sadovnichy shared the low level of school preparation that lecturers have to face today. “We know that to study a course in (mathematical) analysis, a student is required to have a higher level of proficiency in trigonometric techniques, but a student cannot do this,” the rector said. – But it is much more difficult to work with weak geometric and especially logical preparation of schoolchildren!”
According to him, school graduates who entered fundamental mathematical and physics faculties sometimes have difficulty distinguishing between simple logical concepts, for example, “necessary” and “sufficient” conditions, confuse “premise” with “premise”, some do not understand the logical nature of “ proof by contradiction.» “It is obvious that it is difficult for teachers to build courses on such a basis and they are forced to switch to correcting the situation,” Sadovnichy said.
But not everything is smooth, according to him, even in higher education: there, even in specialized physics and mathematics faculties, there has been an alarming trend toward a reduction in fundamental mathematical courses.
“The analysis course is the core of a student’s preparation; it is often taught formally or is completely relegated to the background,” says Viktor Antonovich. “The reason is a naive view of fundamental mathematical results.”
To explain their significance, the academician cited the example of Pierre Fermat himself, who in the first half of the 17th century formulated his great theorem of Fermat, over which mathematicians around the world struggled for 300 years. “And now that it has been proven, we understand that the result itself is unlikely to allow a breakthrough in science or technology, but the methods invented by mathematicians in attempts to prove the theorem are now used in bank encryption and in the digital signature system, — he said. – And how would the world exist if there were no “unnecessary” Fermat’s theorem? children on the OGE with calculators.
“The first step has been taken,” Sadovnichy said, “9th graders are allowed to use calculators during certification. Yes, the ability to manually solve quickly and accurately will decrease, but not creative tasks. Does the human brain develop in the right direction when solving such problems? Hardly».
The academician concluded his speech with a proposal to establish an official professional holiday in Russia — Mathematics Day. A suitable date, according to him, could be December 1 — the birthday of the outstanding Russian mathematician, known throughout the world, Nikolai Lobachevsky, the discoverer of non-Euclidean geometry.
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