Call of the Times for Talents: Students of Both Liberal Arts and Science Should Learn Math Well

​

​

           The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) is a test to measure the academic proficiency of high school students in the United States. SAT scores are an important indicator of the academic proficiency of high school graduates around the world who apply for admission to US universities and scholarships. The SAT is based on a 1600-point scale and comprises three sections: Reading (up to 400 points), Writing (up to 400 points), and Math (up to 800 points). Whether a student will study liberal arts or science in the future, the SAT’s math section has the same test questions and the same score/weight. This reflects not only educational equity but also the requirement for talents of both liberal arts and science to have the same mathematical skill level with the advance of our times.

 

           However, in real life, it is agreed that students not majoring in math need not do well in math. To reduce the pressure on these students, for math, the New York State Department of Education only requires them to pass an algebra regent exam to receive their high school diploma. This is a requirement much lower than that in other developed or developing countries. The high school advisors in the United States even do not request students to take more difficult math courses now.

 

           Supposedly, students decide to major in science because they like science and want to have a STEM career in the future. Similarly, students decide to major in liberal arts because they like liberal arts and want to have a career in liberal arts. High school students’ application for college admission and their choice of major should be based entirely on their interests. This is the principle of individualized education.

 

           Many science students excel in English, history, and other subjects of liberal arts, and many liberal arts students do well in math, physics, and chemistry. A student’s decision to major in liberal arts should not be interpreted as a result of bad performance in math, physics, or chemistry. Liberal arts students should not be a group of “students with poor performance in math”. Instead, they should be a community of true enthusiasts for liberal arts.

 

           One of the reasons why the SAT has the same math test questions for students of liberal arts and science is a need for educational equity. The SAT can assess students’ basic mathematical knowledge and skills through these questions. In addition, the exam needs to measure a student’s mathematical ability and research capability; especially his/her logical thinking skill in the mathematical area. The SAT needs to reflect the position of a student in a fair manner through one set of math examination papers.

 

           Another reason why the SAT has the same math test questions and score weights for students of liberal arts and science is the need to train creative talents. Modern economics and management are liberal arts. But their graduate schools are very glad to enroll students with an undergraduate background in math or science. In fact, these disciplines require high mathematical skills. Many mathematical formulas in economics and management are difficult to understand even for those with degrees in math. Mathematical modeling from modern math, among others, is an essential idea and tool for the innovative development of economics and management.

 

           In the US, high school students can take Normal, Honors, or Advanced Placement (AP) math classes with varying depth, breadth, and difficulty. It is hard to see the actual mathematical level students achieved in high school from SAT scores. Therefore, for admission, colleges assess students’ performance in math and science based on not only their SAT scores but also their grades obtained for high-school math and science courses (including AP courses) from multiple levels and perspectives.

 

           Some students like liberal arts while doing well in math. If these students only take simple math courses in high school, it will be difficult to find their actual ability. Such a situation is actually unfair to these students and has an adverse impact on colleges’ selection of candidates. A student who applies for admission to the Department of Economics at Harvard University should, of course, let Harvard know that he has good enough mathematical skills to study in its Mathematics Department (While having a preference for liberal arts, he has taken AP Calculus BC course, and even had participated in math competitions). The president of Harvard thus can expect this student to be a future world-class economist.

 

           With social progress and scientific development, it is difficult to identify the category of many emerging sciences. Therefore, in terms of requirements for future talents, whether they engage in the area of science or liberal arts, it is very important for them to own general knowledge and develop in an all-around way. This is the basis of human innovation because innovation must be a new development and breakthrough after the synthesis of various kinds of knowledge. Many years ago, there was a doctoral student named Daniel in the Mathematics Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Which universities in the world can allow students majoring in music as an undergraduate to study mathematics education in graduate college? Daniel’s research combined math and music. How math and music can be combined? What is the combined result? People don’t know the answer now, but ten years or twenty years later, a new discipline or profession might come into being. Professor Bruce R Vogeli, who was the head of the college at that time, proudly said, “We welcome these students.”

 

           The advanced economics and management in contemporary America are the result of the combinations of math and economics and math and management years ago. What about the combination of math and philosophy (which is already in progress)? What about the combination of math and history? What about the combination of math and art? Many new disciplines will emerge, and here lies the root of the comprehensive and rapid development of science in the United States.

A Chinese expert in secondary-school math education proposes an idea of math education that does not distinguish between students of liberal arts and science. He gives an example from his teaching experience. He once taught a class of 43 students who were good at math and science. Of these students, four majored in education, four in law, and three in economics when they studied in college. Two of them were top students who won the math competition in junior and senior high school, and one of them ranked second in terms of the total score among several thousand students in a joint examination of the top seven key science-oriented high schools in Shanghai. These students owned great advantages in math and science. But they all chose a development path in the area of liberal arts in college. Now, more than a decade later, they have proven themselves to be good students of liberal arts: two of them earned PhDs in education and several other students earned PhDs in law or economics.

 

           This expert has one more example. This student is not a high school graduate of a science-oriented class. Instead, he became a student at Shanghai International Studies University for being good at English. Thanks to the high-school mathematical education same for students of both liberal arts and science, he cultivated his interest in math and developed a good mathematical ability. During college, he managed to take advanced math courses for science and technology students in a science university for three years, laying a solid mathematical foundation for himself. As a result, he won a full scholarship to Boston University with excellent performance in English and math. He now has earned a double doctorate at Boston University, one of which is a degree in math!

 

           In fact, many outstanding students of science from our top key high schools choose to study liberal arts such as education, law, and economics in college. These top students good at math who had won math competitions in junior and senior high school do well in their undergraduate and graduate studies, obtaining good grades and earning Ph.D. in education, law, etc.

 

           In terms of cognitive style, field-independent students are more likely to learn math well, while it is harder for field-dependent students to learn math. So, does it mean that field-dependent students cannot learn math well? This conclusion is obviously wrong. The outcome is fundamentally related to the math teacher. Field-independent and field-dependent students do have different perceptions of mathematical knowledge to some extent. If a teacher teaches in a way that is perfectly suited to the cognitive style of field-independent students, the field-dependent students may struggle to keep up with the course progress and lag behind. If the teacher does not realize this and continues his/her teaching in this way, then a group of students with a field-dependent cognitive style will be discouraged and fear math, and may even quit the class or give up math.

 

           Conversely, the Chinese secondary-school math education expert mentioned above believes that, if the teaching method of the math teacher can take into consideration the students with field-dependent cognitive style to slow down his/her lecture, explain new mathematical concepts in a more detailed, more visual and step-by-step way, such as using visual images to explain abstract mathematical concepts, the students with a field-dependent cognitive style can also learn math (not simple math, but the same math course for science students) well. There will be no difference in test scores either. The expert can tell many success stories. Using a special and effective teaching method that he has researched for many years for students with a weak foundation in math, he has helped a large number of students who prefer the liberal arts and are not good at learning math dramatically improve their math scores in the college entrance exam, thus changing their fates.

 

           One important point that I want to make here is that generally speaking, the vast majority of American high school students can learn math well, whether they prefer math & science or liberal arts. By mentioning math, I’m not referring to Algebra 2 and Elementary Calculus courses only, but also to AP Calculus AB and even AP Calculus BC courses. It is not difficult to get a perfect score of 800 for the math section of the SAT. But one thing to highlight is that the quality and teaching methods of math teachers are very important. Math teachers must pay attention to the cognitive and learning characteristics of mathematical and science knowledge of students who are suitable for the field-dependent cognitive approach. Only in this way can the teaching succeed.

 

           All high school students can take AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC courses and score 800 on the SAT. This is an idea that should be advocated to cultivate more innovative talents and meet the requirement of the times on talents. We need to understand the educational idea that students “with difficulties in learning math” can also learn math well. The key to helping students with difficulties in learning math lies in the quality and teaching methods of our math teachers. We must provide good mathematical education for students of both liberal arts and science. The perception that students of liberal arts are poor in math must be changed. A large number of students with difficulties in learning math need someone to help them improve their mathematical learning ability. We must rise to this challenge bravely.

​

​