The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age

by Conrad Wolfram

Overview

Why are we all taught maths for years of our lives? Does it really empower everyone?Or fail most and disenfranchise many? Is it crucial for the AI age or an obsoleterite of passage?

The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age is a groundbreaking book that exposes why maths education is in crisis worldwide and how the only fix is a fundamentally new mainstream subject. It argues that today’s maths education is not working to elevate society with modern computation, data science and AI. Instead, students are subjugated to compete with what computers do best, and lose.

This is the only book to explain why being “bad at maths” may be as much the subject’s fault as the learner’s: how a stuck educational ecosystem has students, parents, teachers, schools, employers and policymakers running in the wrong direction to catch up with real-world requirements. But it goes further too—for the first time setting out a completely alternative vision for a core computational school subject to fix the problem and seed more general reformation of education for the AI age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579550363
Publisher:	Wolfram Media, Inc.
Publication date:	06/10/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	470,776
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Conrad Wolfram is cofounder and CEO of Wolfram Research Europe. Over the last 30 years he has been a key part of the technology transformation that has brought maths, computation and data science to the forefront of today’s world and moved us towards the fourth industrial revolution. Conrad regularly appears in the media to speak about subjects ranging from the computational future and artificial intelligence to twenty-first-century education. His team’s work to build a solution started in 2010 when computerbasedmath.org was founded—this book being a key milestone in the journey to fundamental reform.

Table of Contents

Preface
Part I: The Problem
· Maths v. Maths
· Why Should Everyone Learn Maths?
· Maths and Computation in Today's World
· The 4-Step Maths/Computational Thinking Process
· Hand Calculating: Not the Essence of Maths
Part II: The Fix
· "Thinking" Outcomes
· Defining the Core Computational Subject
· New Subject, New Pedagogy?
· What to Deliver? How to Build It?
Part III: Achieving Change
· Objections to Computer-Based Core Computational Learning
· Roadmap for Change
· The Beginning of the Story· Is Computation for Everything?
· What's Surprised Me on This Journey So Far
· Call to Action
Appendices
Index

Editorial Reviews

2020-05-07
An argument for reevaluating concepts and methods in mathematics education.

Wolfram, a technologist whose family members run several businesses that incorporate advanced math and computation, presents an authoritative call to completely revamp the structure of math education (or “maths,” in his British dialect). The book makes a case for improving students’ mastery and actionable knowledge by teaching computational thinking and trading tedious long-division drills for appropriate use of computers. Wolfram lays out the reasons why the current math curriculum makes learning more difficult, explains how outcomes would improve under his proposed changes, and addresses common objections to a curriculum overhaul. He concludes by laying out a plan for getting stakeholders on board, effecting necessary changes, and changing the public’s attitude about what it means to be good at math. In a particularly effective analogy, to which Wolfram returns repeatedly, he compares the change in math instruction to the shift away from Latin in the English school system; although Latin is foundational, he notes, it’s almost never used outside the classroom. Wolfram does an effective job of analyzing the problems with contemporary math education, and he makes a strong case for change. His writing is strong and often clever (“Sometimes the maths educationalists can look like elders, policymakers like disciples, and the population like the maths tribe”), and it makes for enjoyable reading on what might ordinarily be a dry subject. Wolfram will likely persuade many readers that, in 2020, using computers for calculation gives students room to focus on broader questions. Teachers and students are sure to find this book useful, as will those who make education policy.

A solid and thoughtful educational analysis.

Kirkus Reviews