I met some education majors in the 70s, when I was in college and grad school, (at McGill, coincidentally). It was clear, even then, that many of them were aiming to become grade school teachers because they could not do math beyond the grade school level. My encounters with my kids' teachers over the years have only reinforced that impression.
Two examples:
1) A 4th grade teacher who gave assignments in which presentation counted for 80%, and content for 20%.
2) A middle school math teacher who claimed the answer to the question "Flipping a coin, what are the odds of getting heads or tails?" was 50%. She really meant to be asking two questions, one about heads and one about tails. She completely missed the significance of the word "or" in questions about statistics.
I talked to the teacher, and she was definitely confused. If not by the math concepts, then by the common English phrases used in talking about probability.
Two examples:
1) A 4th grade teacher who gave assignments in which presentation counted for 80%, and content for 20%.
2) A middle school math teacher who claimed the answer to the question "Flipping a coin, what are the odds of getting heads or tails?" was 50%. She really meant to be asking two questions, one about heads and one about tails. She completely missed the significance of the word "or" in questions about statistics.
This article does not surprise me at all.