Thai students poor in math, science and reading

[mok199]

....and English.

yes ......i believe it is thailands real problem,the langauge,thai is sso limited....i was watching ''bruce willis ''movie with my gal,and i started to think...god this voice over is so rediculous...westerners dont talk like that...until thais begin to relize how ''stuck''they are with this language ,things will never change...but the desire to learn and achieve must be inside the student....a culture is defined 3 things and language is one of them....the other 2 are...1) how good looking the woman are ....2)how good looking the woman are...

[Local Drunk]

Who needs maths when you have an iPhone with a calculator.

Go to shop buy something for ฿48 give young girl ฿100.

Girl gets calculator out to workout change !!!!!!!! <deleted>

Peter... would that be a bottle of beer you're purchasing in your hypothetical situation?

[hellodolly]

50th out of 65 isn't good.

I can just imagine where it would be if Abhist hadn't started to improve it.

It would be nice to have a one year report on how the Thai education has performed with there free tablet's.

I am still amazed at their ability to work with electronic thingamajigs and inability to tell you how many apples they would have if farmer Zack gave them 3 and farmer John gave them 2 and farmer Jill gave them 4 with out a calculator.

[cbmgolfer]

Seems there is a correlation between English ability and math and science. Vietnam clearly teaches English.... And they fared well.

Malaysia in recent years changed from teaching math and science in English, to mandating it be taught in Bahasa. Now they are reportedly lamenting that graduates are not competing for jobs in the global market (and for international univeristies).

[cbmgolfer]

50th out of 65 isn't good.

I can just imagine where it would be if Abhist hadn't started to improve it.

It would be nice to have a one year report on how the Thai education has performed with there free tablet's.

I am still amazed at their ability to work with electronic thingamajigs and inability to tell you how many apples they would have if farmer Zack gave them 3 and farmer John gave them 2 and farmer Jill gave them 4 with out a calculator.

I read an article a while back in one of the Thai papers saying the tablet scheme was basically a failure because they gave them to first graders who had no clue what to do with them other than play games and they didn't properly train teachers, etc. on how to utilize them.

[JRSoul]

Thai students poor in math, science and reading..........and bloody awful in almost everything else.

[Mackie]

Seems there is a correlation between English ability and math and science. Vietnam clearly teaches English.... And they fared well.

Malaysia in recent years changed from teaching math and science in English, to mandating it be taught in Bahasa. Now they are reportedly lamenting that graduates are not competing for jobs in the global market (and for international univeristies).

Thai high school students take the national test (M3/M6) to assess their knowledge on a national level. You know before you even get the scores and the report that the lowest scores will be in Maths and English. A pretty safe bet. Two years ago the average score on a national level for Math was something like 16-17% and English 19-20%.

[paquito]

That's something the whole country can agree on and do something about. The problem will be addressed by all the leaders of all political parties. The whole nation will stand united and lay the blame squarely at the feet of the foreigners. Problem solved. See how easy it is?

[lounger]

Good reporting? Whoever drew the barchart makes Thailand closer to Singapore than actually the case. Singapore is actually much taller in the chart

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[klauskunkel]

Thai students poor in math, science and reading

, but they are excellent in video gaming, karaoke, gang activities, Facebook and unprotected sex.

[trogers]

Seems there is a correlation between English ability and math and science. Vietnam clearly teaches English.... And they fared well.

Malaysia in recent years changed from teaching math and science in English, to mandating it be taught in Bahasa. Now they are reportedly lamenting that graduates are not competing for jobs in the global market (and for international univeristies).

Thai high school students take the national test (M3/M6) to assess their knowledge on a national level. You know before you even get the scores and the report that the lowest scores will be in Maths and English. A pretty safe bet. Two years ago the average score on a national level for Math was something like 16-17% and English 19-20%.

Careful! Some smart redshirt may catch on and organise a protest to insist all scores to be regraded with the formula (square root X 10).

[Curt1591]

Who needs maths when you have an iPhone with a calculator.

Go to shop buy something for ฿48 give young girl ฿100.

Girl gets calculator out to workout change !!!!!!!! <deleted>

It often depends on her grasp of English, or your grasp of Thai. Thai clerks will often use calculators to help avoid misunderstandings.

[kirk0233]

Thai students poor in math, science and reading

Surely this is not surprising to anyone. After all, it is a third world country with irresponsible and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats who trade grades for money and steal what they can. I doubt anyone moved here for stimulating philosophical conversations with Thais at cafes or to learn more about its grand education system. It would be more surprising if Thais were in the top 10 in math, science and reading; as it would be if Nicaragua or Guatemala or some other banana republic placed in the top 10. As they become more intellectual and educated the violence will decrease here as well as they learn to use reason to solve problems instead of aggression.

[dao16]

50th out of 65 isn't good.

I can just imagine where it would be if Abhist hadn't started to improve it.

It would be nice to have a one year report on how the Thai education has performed with there free tablet's.

I am still amazed at their ability to work with electronic thingamajigs and inability to tell you how many apples they would have if farmer Zack gave them 3 and farmer John gave them 2 and farmer Jill gave them 4 with out a calculator.

I read an article a while back in one of the Thai papers saying the tablet scheme was basically a failure because they gave them to first graders who had no clue what to do with them other than play games and they didn't properly train teachers, etc. on how to utilize them.

Yeah, have seen dozens of kids with their free tablets and never once seen them doing anything remotely educational with them. Games and music videos....I guess they are learning how to use youtube.

[JoeThePoster]

Thai students poor in math, science and reading

At least they ace it in History, Geography, Social Sciences and all other subjects.

[ginjag]

Who needs maths when you have an iPhone with a calculator.

Go to shop buy something for ฿48 give young girl ฿100.

Girl gets calculator out to workout change !!!!!!!! <deleted>

How is it the police never use a calculator ???? oh because he never gives change when you pay a fine.

[ginjag]

Thai students poor in math, science and reading

At least they ace it in History, Geography, Social Sciences and all other subjects.

Never in any rural schools have I seen a teacher teach Geography, if you ask a student what is N.S.E.W. they would say WHAT ???

[smotherb]

Piss-poor in reasoning/logic as well. But, who cares. The girls are stunning.

Gives you a better chance with them does it?

[bigbamboo]

Not to worry. Things will improve by the time they get to university. Thailand has one of the highest 'degrees awarded per capita' ratios in the world.

So Thai students (and their teachers) must be smarter than they look.

[culicine]

Not much learning going on in Thai schools. I wonder if the scores were inflated by using students from International schools

I think these exams are translated into the local language, so I don't think so. And the number if international school students here are a very small percentage of the total number of students.

Anyway, I hope we don't see some knee-jerk reaction by making school work even more difficult than it is - yet students still perform poorly in many subjects. Why? Anyone seeing a PISA paper will notice in requires thinking and reasoning skills that are not normally taught in Thai schools. In maths, Thai kids are just taught to get the correct answer for a specific suite of questions. Give them something left of centre and they don't have a clue. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of very smart kids in Thai schools here; they are just not taught the skills to do well in these exams. I've taught them for 13 years so I have a pretty good idea of what is going on. Hopefully my students come out understanding maths a bit more than the average student here. As another example, you see some high flying kids cramming into tutorial schools for their entrance exams, yet they could not do one of the harder problems from a SAT1 exam.

Another issue is that in Thailand, students cannot student these subjects in depth in high school as they must also study practically every subject to M6 level. It's quite amusing to see boys studying dance in their final year of school. Similarly, all students must study music, art, guidance, PE, etc, until the end of high school. This is very unlike studying IB, A-levels, AP, etc.

Hopefully the minister will look at changing the system/curriculum, but not sure this will happen any time soon.

[BlueSkyCowboy]

50th out of 65 isn't good.

Pretty sure the US is near the Thai score and English is also the second language for most in California

[smotherb]

Thailand is not the only country doing poorly in Math, Science, Reading or any other subject, except perhaps, playing video games.

I have been involved in course development at two universities. The primary trend in both curricula was to lessen the complexity of the assignments.

It is strikingly apparent, the Educational Philosophy of the 21st Century; dumb down the questions.

Lets take a look at the same math problem over the years:

1950s Math

A vendor has 100 teapots which cost him 5 quid each. He sells 4/5 of them for a 30% profit each. What is the difference between his initial purchase price and his total sales?

1970s Math

A vendor has 100 teapots which cost him 5 quid each. He sells 80 of them for a 30% profit each. What is the profit he has madeover his total purchase price?

1990s Math

A vendor has 100 teapots which cost him 5 quid each. He sells 80 of them for a 1.5 quid profit each. Has he made a profit?

2010s Math

A vendor has 100 teapots which cost him 5 quid each. He sells 80 of them for a 1.5 quid profit each. Underline the number 80.

[tutsiwarrior]

today when I got outta bed I saw my niece on the back terrace who I haven't seen in a couple of years, she useta live with us and now is about 20 y.o....

I was gobsmacked as she now is a ringer for the artist Frida Kahlo: dark, intense and serious with the worm eyebrows...

and I directed her and the other kids to the laptop and brought up wikipedia to illustrate and then discussed her art and her status as a feminist icon and the work of Diego Rivera and his murals at the government offices in Mexico City (the english-thai dictionary got a good workout, lemme tell ye...)

later the niece was posing holding up her hair to expose her splendid neck like Frida in the portraits and murmured: 'Frida? eh?'

as adults we have to give the children the benefit of our knowledge and the fact that thai kids are low on international scholastic ratings reveals alot about about your average thai household where kids are expected to obey and not to think which is reflected in the local schooling...

Edited December 5, 2013 by tutsiwarrior

[Jasun]

Easy to think this could be a poverty/lack of resources thing. Except that China with less funding and a lower GDP than Thailand, ranked near top in most categories.

[DocN]

Sure this is what Suthep will tackle next...after he managed to walk on water!

[smotherb]

50th out of 65 isn't good.

Pretty sure the US is near the Thai score and English is also the second language for most in California

Not quite that bad, but pretty bad see http://nces.ed.gov/ssbr/pages/international.asp

And, as you mentioned, the high numbers of black and hispanic Americans are far below the avaerages for white Americans--interestingly, the disparity is not so great at the younger ages.

[peterbkk9]

Apparently 1.7 million tablet computers distributed this year did not help

Edited December 5, 2013 by peterbkk9

[SjaakNL2013]

And English. And social skills, and geography...and and and...

But Thai students are excellent in, skipping classes, avoiding responsibility cheating, playing with phones and many more life skills.

Statistics always show the bad side. It's time that skills as above also get scores and you ill see an overall improvement in ratings for Thai students.

[Guest]

Here is few sample questions of PISA math test . I think those are good way to test the ability to use the math skills.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/form/

[Loles]

Yes, this is pretty sure. But they are also poor in history, geography, map, time or any basic skills.

BUT THIS IS NOT THEIR MISTAKE. "they" keep them in dark, that is easier.

dear high educated yellow mob, what is your opinion in this case ???