Critical Thinking Example: Evaluation of a Third Graders Work

The third graders work is a simple question that requires a practical application. A student is supposed to read the sentence and identify the mathematical question need to arrive at the answer. While it is a subtraction question between two figures, the student made a mistake by adding the figures. They missed interpreting the case study and identifying the key words which are how many more minutes that signifies it is a matter of getting the difference between the two figures. The student has performed poorly in terms of quality even though they did the wrong mathematical calculation. They lack organizational skills to arrange their work to have a flow. The learner should learn the vocabulary in English to understand the meaning of words, which will make it easier to solve mathematical problems. Support examples that the student could use include practicing the meaning of words like more than, less than, and equal to. A teacher should encourage the student to love solving issues through practice in class. They can start with easy problems as long as they understand the basics of multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division. Hence, they will be in a position to interpret questions presented to them with ease.

Summary of Article

According to the findings by PISA on the performance of students from a world perspective, US results indicate that learners are average on mathematical subjects. Students have an issue with sciences and reading with a performance of below average, which illustrates the perception learners have towards the lessons and the inability to match the cognitive demands. This is despite a number of finances spent per student to educate them, which is higher than in other countries like the Slovak Republic, which is doing better than the US. Learners might perform poorly due to their economic background. China has excelled in mathematics due to the exposure they extend to their children from an early age. The relationship a teacher has with their students affects their perception and attitude towards mathematics. It is the responsibility of the teacher to package lessons into comprehensive and understandable content for the students.

Personal Response

I agree with the authors point in that learners performance depends on their background. This is because a child who is facing challenges at home will drag the stress in their academic studies leading to poor performance. The readings are reliable save for the common errors that arise when conducting a research. Hence, the results are highly reliable and reflect what is on the ground. The author does an effective job to support their argument through the provision of results from different countries, which form part of the respondents used in collecting data. Students need constant practice before they can master a mathematical calculation, which requires them to work closely with the teacher. Further, exposing the children to mathematical problems from an early age helps them familiarize with education and it becomes easy when they start schooling.

Works Cited

PISA, OECD. "Results in focus." 2014-02-17]. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/PISA-2012-results-US.pdf