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THE LATEST REPORT from the OECD’s student assessment board has shown Irish school children have poor abilities to solve problems.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PiSA) has ranked Ireland at 22nd from 44 countries in computer-based problem solving.
Countries like the United States, Norway, Denmark and Sweden performed similarly to Ireland; while Canada, Australia, Finland and the UK performed significantly better than Ireland. The top six performing countries are in Asia, with Singapore ranked first.
Boys and girls have similar standards, but there is a gap between the performances of native Irish children and those from immigrant backgrounds.
Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn said, “The performance of Irish students on problem solving in this PISA study is good, but there is considerable room for improvement.”
In Ireland, 1,303 15 year olds in 183 schools participated in the tests.
But, are you any better? Here are some of the sample questions.
Question 1: Julio lives in Silver, Maria lives in Lincoln and Don lives in Nobel. They want to meet in a suburb on the map. No-one wants to travel for more than 15 minutes. The numbers on the roads represent the time it takes to travel from point to point. Where could they meet?
Question 2: Maria wants to travel from Diamond to Einstein. The quickest route takes 31 minutes. Highlight this route.
Question 3: It’s Alan’s birthday and he’s having a party. Seven other people will attend. Everyone will sit around the dining table. The seating arrangement must meet the following conditions:
Amy and Alan sit together.
Brad and Beth sit together.
Charles sits next to either Debbie or Emily.
Frances sits next to Debbie.
Amy and Alan do not sit next to either Brad or Beth.
Brad does not sit next to Charles or Frances.
Debbie and Emily do not sit next to each other.
Alan does not sit next to either Debbie or Emily.
Amy does not sit next to Charles.
Where should everyone sit?
The answers are here, but no cheating. For more interactive questions, click here.
How did you do? Let us know in the comments.
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“Amy and Alan do not sit next to either Brad or Beth.
Brad does not sit next to Charles or Frances.
Debbie and Emily do not sit next to each other.
Alan does not sit next to either Debbie or Emily.
Amy does not sit next to Charles.
Where should everyone sit?”
Why would you seat this lot at the same table then?
Sounds like a wedding seating plan!
Yeah, why dont they stop being such ignorant gits.
Maybe if our schools spent less time teaching religion and preparing for religious ceremonies and less time drilling Irish into kids there would be more time to teach them things that might prepare them for the real world and the real world outside Ireland when they can’t find jobs here, not saying they shouldn’t learn some Irish, maybe learn some conversational Irish. But if we really think we have a smart economy science and maths are what’s needed, our smart economy that politicians keep going on about, is a bit of a myth. Any smart jobs in IT or science based industries can’t be filled with Irish applicants as we don’t have enough people to fill them. I don’t think apple or Microsoft or Pfizer or Google or any other of the hundred of multi nationals care much about whether or not you can sing off the tales of peig from memory in your native tongue or can say your prayers and sing a few hymns
Hear hear!
I meant a lot of jobs can’t be filled not any
The problem is much bigger than the number of hours spent on particular subjects; it’s how they are taught. Memorising facts so they can be dumped onto an exam answer paper does not help kids to actually learn.
I’m no fan of religion being taught in schools, but there are more sweeping reforms needed than that.
It’s also the fact that our kids don’t get problem solving opportunities in real life. Everything is laid on for them in every aspect of life. They are pretty spoiled compared to previous generations. How it’s taught is a good point. Create some Xbox. Problem solving games that are not naff and you could be on to a winner
There is usually uproar around the Leaving Cert maths paper every year as there is usually an “unexpected” question that requires problem solving skills instead of rehashing answers from previous exam papers. In the real world problem solving skills will stand to a person far more than just being able to parrot an answer.
False choice argument.
i) Religious ceremonies are not part of second level.
II) performance is not linked to the number of hours taught. Some systems with very long hours do well (Asian countries) and some system with fewer hours do well (Finland).
iii) Countries with out religious education don’t do any better (US, France and parts of the UK)
I think the best way to improve problem solving is to build better teachers. We need to create a culture that attracts the brightest of society.
Questions 1 and 2 are simple, 3′s a bit of a chore but quite doable if you stick with it.
I’d need a pen and paper for three
Although maths is very important for brain development, we learn it religiously in schools and college. I was never much use at advanced mathematics.
Chess though, if thought at an early age,can also help us in life,with problem solving, analysis and looking at the bigger picture. I learned from my parents aged 7 , I still play games every week online. Its an easy game to learn and your child will reap the benefits.
The greatest advocate for this theory is Grandmaster Gary Kasprov, the former world chess champion. He was on the Late Late on Friday, Great interview you can catch on RTEplayer.
Well if they want to complain maybe our major state exam when you are 18 should not be a glorified memory test perhaps? As the leaving cert is in Many subjects.
I saw so many people who got the five and six hundred points usually crash to earth at College level because the leaving certificate did not create and analytical three-dimensional reasoning process all the religion probably did not help with that either we don’t teach our kids to be skeptical t understand scientific method to look for evidence for things to search for logic in situations. So used to rote learning they are not able to provide any kind of analysis of the subject at college level because they’re so used to learning things off and spitting them back out.
Very, very true, Ryan!
My brain hurts.
Maybe I’m perverse, but I love questions like that! Have you got any about trains leaving a station and travelling at a particular speed? :)
Here’s one for you: The red line LUAS leaves at 13:05, travelling at an average speed of 38kmh. How much crack cocaine will be smoked in the next 40 minutes?
No fair, Voice; you haven’t told me whether it’s a week day or the weekend ;)
Hey guys,
The answers should be sorted now. Apologies for that.
Paul
Are these questions meant to be hard? Id say most people answered them correctly in less than five minutes
They’re meant to be for 13 to 15 year olds, so not really.
Thanks i feel silly now
Ah Feck… I work out numbers 1 & 3 and then the answers can’t be seen. Can I have my 10 mins back !!!
3/3. Nice questions,
Teach Philosophy in Secondary School & Upgrade the Universities to Techs.
Framework for rational logical real world decision making in personal and work lives.
- No more Celtic Tigers.
Throw in a few bottles of wine and It’ll kick off at Alan’s party!!
3 out of 3! That was fun :)
They take me back, 3/3. Remember those questions, if you fill half a bath in 30 minutes at 10 litres a minute, how long will it take to fill the full bath and your father shouting “aw jaysus, and it’s not even Saturday, I don’t need a bleedin’ bath”
this really is a problem,but how are we going to solve it? nobody knows!
Kids and adults alike should be doing some kind of crossword puzzles/logic puzzles/sudoku etc on a regular basis. It all boosts brain activity.
Oh well, wouldn’t you know it . . .
Religion and the Irish language are, YET AGAIN, the cause of all things amiss.
And it’s education in this instance.
Quit the mindless whinging, people, and take a long, hard look at yourselves!
Choking kids with maths without applying it to any practical situation like these ones above might be why so many Irish kids are bad at problem solving. The maths I did at school just made me miserable and I easily lost interest in what it was we were doing, because there never appeared to be any practical application for it.
The project maths they’ve brought in now surely is a move in the right direction. It did scare me a bit. Crazy isn’t it, how when we were suddenly given a maths curriculum that involved more practical application we all freaked out and couldn’t handle it.
The same fundamental flaws are there in the way we learn Irish. It’s taught vigorously and harshly like algebra or Latin. It’s taught like a dead language and that’s how it stays in the minds of students. Every school should be a Gaelscoil where Irish is the language of communication, sport, business, history, music and the arts. The tedious lists of grammar aren’t so tedious anymore once you realise there’s a reason why your learning it.
I was only in primary school 10 years ago and the way we learned Irish destroyed it for all of us. I’m having to properly learn it myself now more like the way Des Bishop learned it.
Speaking of Des Bishop, he was in NUIG last year doing a gig and he asked one girl in the audience what she studied. She said Irish to be a teacher. Des started to talk to her in Irish and the girl shook her head and said “I don’t speak it I only want to teach it.” Outrageous. She’s a perfect specimen of the how the way Irish is neglected in most aspects of Irish life, business and education, and the grammar viciously rammed down students throats for 1 hour a day is exacerbating the problems facing the language. I’d fear she might pass on the mistakes that ruined the language for her to her own students.
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