American math students ...

I think the primary reason for group learning is because we often learn the material even better when we have to teach it to someone else.

I find it kinda humorous that the complaint is that they don't work well alone and before it used to be that they didn't work well in groups.

Her college peers had a dependence on calculators? Man, I wasn't allowed to use a calculator in *any* university level math class.

and teaching these "cluster" methods as short cuts is great, but they should definitely master the basics first.

>> Man, I wasn't allowed to use a calculator in *any* university level math class.
That would be very awkward for me... I do elec eng. Even with log tables there wouldn't be enough time to do anything worthwhile. Sure you should learn mental arithmitic, but there comes a point where doing sums isn't important anymore. Most things, you find, are nonlinear, and with that comes computer territory. And a lot of things you can't do even with a calculator. Try solving "x + cos(x) = 0.53" by hand. You can't. You have to do it graphically or numerically.

I wasn't allowed to use a calculator in *any* university level math class.

Well, if you are supposed to prove a universal statement, a calculator would not help all that much anyway.

Originally Posted by Thantos

I find it kinda humorous that the complaint is that they don't work well alone and before it used to be that they didn't work well in groups.

I don't. Both are important. As an engineer it is vital that I be able to communicate and work with others as part of a large project. It is also essential that I be able to work for extended periods by myself on my part of the project. It's not an either or issue.

The humor is more about the large swing in "what the problem is"

Those books seem alright. I think clustering is better than a standard algorithm that the student doesn't really understand. I think clustering helps when the math gets more advanced.