With the shortage of STEM graduates, shouldn’t we rethink how we teach Math?

Has anyone ever demonstrated a causative relationship between passing math tests and being an effective engineer?

I’m not suggesting math isn’t important to STEM fields, but I am questioning the practice of using one’s ability to pass Math tests as the filter that decides whether or not they get to work in a technical field. With Math classes the primary stumbling block and employers crowing about a lack of STEM graduates, shouldn’t we be scrutinizing the Math curriculum a little more closely?

It seems like instead of asking “Why are we teaching this?” We’re asking “Why are people so stupid?” How much engineering talent is getting wasted because someone who maybe would have been an otherwise talented engineer was filtered out because they couldn’t pass a potentially irrelevant Math test?

Submitted February 21, 2021 at 06:34PM by josefski https://ift.tt/37B2ej0