Thursday, April 8, 2010

Views from Terence Tao

Here is an interesting interview with the remarkably prolific Terence Tao, who is one of the youngest Field Medalists ever (he got the Medal in 2006, during the last ICM); it is certainly worth reading:

And here is Tao writing on his own blog, on a topic much discussed these days: the potentialities of the internet in teaching; this is actually a talk given at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, at their induction ceremony:
What is interesting is that he posted a rough draft of the talk on his blog, prior to the actual talk, and invited comments and feedback, and then incorporated some of what he received into his talk.

Today, in the light of radical changes currently happening in the Indian education system, such as the passing of the Right to Education Act, there is considerable talk going on about teacher education. (There is a gigantic shortage in the supply of trained teachers today.) A key question here is whether Web based delivery systems have any role to play in tackling this vast problem. I think Prof Tao's comments have value in this context. A lot of thought needs to be given to this question, and I invite readers to share their views and post their comments. Links to pieces written about this would be very welcome.

3 comments:

  1. shailes sir told that today very much of shortage of trained teachers, but in our state there are so many teacher are waiting for jobs,, in my view such a number of teachers are there,, i am not sure they are well trained or not...good teacher trainers are shortage... government should take care of this aspect...

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  2. In my opinion, the internet is the best thing that has happened to mathematics since the discovery of logarithms. If you do not like one blog you can move on to another. If you want to know how to start, may I suggest the following subjects, long division, fractions, decimals, geometry including Pythagoras, algebra including quadratic equations, graphs, trigonometry, logarithms, compound interest, present value, factorials, the binomial formula etc. comment by Peter L. Griffiths

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  3. The crucial ages for learning maths are from 10 to 15, however advanced mathematicians are not needed for 10 to 12 year olds, but the teachers of this age group must be good at teaching what little maths they know. There is a problem in identifying these teachers, mainly by observation and exam results, including question and answer, working with good text books. They must be replaced by proper mathematicians after the student age of 12. Specifying the age of students is crucial in any educational report. submitted by Peter L. Griffiths.

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