People already in the workforce are quite likely to experience a change in employment, perhaps a quite radical shift – from manufacturing or construction into aged care or healthcare, for example. This type of transition may take them from a role in which a familiarity with technology is not important to one in which it is an integral part of the job.
There is also a growing need to retrain and upskill Australia’s existing workforce, given that more than half of the jobs in the near future are going to fall into the categories of Digital Worker or Digital Maker.
We cannot ignore that computation is becoming embedded in many disciplines, from agriculture to biochemistry to cartography to marketing to zoology, and is indispensable for data gathering, analysis and optimisation. Many Australians realise that if we do not keep up with, and master, these computational technologies and the disciplines that underpin them, we will be at a competitive disadvantage, particularly compared with workers in rapidly developing Asian countries.
This has led to much discussion and concern about the teaching of the STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Mathematics is rightly seen to be a foundation for most sciences and engineering, which generates much of the wealth and prosperity of modern economies. Mathematics is also fundamental to the emerging technologies of AI and robotics, as well as many other technologies, so it is not surprising that our performance in international testing of mathematical competence receives a lot of media attention. While today, on international comparisons, Australian students may not be performing badly, the trends are heading in the wrong direction.
We have an opportunity to reverse our declining performance in this area. But we need also to be realistic and acknowledge that only a minority of people will need a knowledge of advanced mathematics for their job. For Digital Workers or Digital Makers, though, it is questionable whether the traditional way of teaching calculus, for example, is well suited to their future needs. They will almost certainly have powerful tools capable of solving more complex problems than traditional calculus classes could possibly cover. But to use these powerful tools, the students of today will need to understand the fundamental underlying concepts. The focus for mathematics students today should be on how to formulate a problem in a way that a machine can perform the often complex but tedious calculations, and then how to understand and interpret the results of those calculations. Repeated exercises in actually performing those calculations is of little value to today’s students.
. It is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate today’s world without some level of competence with technology. And certainly a better appreciation of statistics would greatly assist many citizens in evaluating fact from fiction when claims are made regarding scientific issues, including climate change or medical issues such as vaccination.
For both future work requirements and informed participation in social and economic debates, it is important to understand mathematical/statistical concepts and the methods used by modern scientists in evaluating data. There needs to be a large-scale effort to provide students with ‘computational thinking skills’ – the thought processes required to translate a problem into a form that a computer can deal with and then interpret and communicate the output of the computation to provide an effective solution to the problem.
The trends in mathematics and science enrolments over the last few decades have received a lot of attention in the media and among policymakers.10 In 2016 an analysis done by the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) found that for Australian Year 12 students:
• Almost 20 per cent were not enrolled in any mathematics course in 2015.
• More than 50 per cent were enrolled in the elementary (non-calculus) level of mathematics in 2015, an increase from 37 per cent in 1996.
• The percentage of students enrolled in intermediate mathematics dropped from 29.6 per cent in 1996 to 19.2 per cent in 2015.
• The percentage of students enrolled in advanced mathematics dropped from 13.6 per cent in 1996 to 9.6 per cent in 2015.
• There is a significant gender bias for advanced mathematics, with the ratio of boys taking advanced mathematics to girls being almost two to one.11
The picture for Australian high school science is, according to the AMSI report, not quite as grim as for mathematics but nevertheless shows disturbing long-term trends. Participation rates, based on Year 12 enrolments for physics, declined from 21 per cent in 1992 to 14 per cent in 2012. For chemistry, the decline was from 23 per cent to 18 per cent, and for biology from 35 per cent to 25 per cent. For a country with a focus on innovation, this is not an encouraging picture.
One factor that may have contributed to these disappointing trends, especially in mathematics, is changes to university entrance requirements. Many universities eliminated the requirement of intermediate or advanced mathematics for admission to science and engineering degrees. AMSI reports that only 14 per cent of universities set a prerequisite of a minimum of intermediate mathematics for entry into a science degree. The requirements for engineering degrees are a bit more stringent, with 59 per cent requiring a
The knowledge and skills our education system provides to our children will largely determine the opportunities that are available to them. This, in turn, will have a bearing on whether they realise their potential, and on their future wellbeing. While this has always been true to some extent, it is becoming even more of an issue in an increasingly globalised and technology-dominated future. And while machines will progressively encroach on existing jobs, for the foreseeable future there will be many jobs, old and new, that computers and robots will not be capable of doing – or at least not without input or oversight by humans. Some of these jobs will not require significant formal education, but a significant number will increasingly require a familiarity with, and in many cases a mastery of, the skills and practices that are part of computational thinking.
These same capabilities are equally important in many work settings, together with some of the ‘softer’ skills and abilities such as emotional intelligence, communication and presentation skills, problem-solving and creativity of various kinds. It is sobering to think that teachers at every level, from primary school through to university, will need to impart these types of skills.
This is why it is so important to ensure that all children, irrespective of their family circumstances, have the opportunity to master the basic skills of reading, writing and maths. To this list we would now add computational thinking.
TECHNOLOGY AND PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY
No one can be certain what the next decades will bring – technology is evolving quickly. But whichever of the scenarios we have discussed plays out, there is no downside to doing everything possible to provide Australians with the knowledge and skills they need to interact with technology at whatever level is appropriate for them – whether they design such technologies, apply sophisticated technology in their own domains of expertise or use technology casually in or outside their place of work.
1. Training and mentoring more STEM teachers.
2. More, and more substantial, ‘flipped learning’ trials.
3. Adoption of Queensland’s ‘digital solutions’ curriculum.
4. Compulsory coding and robotics in primary and secondary schools.
5. Emphasis on computational thinking in existing subjects.
6. Needs-based funding for schools to combat technological inequality.
7. Early education and intervention, especially in poorer communities.
Fostering engagement and encouraging people to participate in our democratic processes is now an important priority for most democratic governments. Individuals now need to evaluate the decisions their governments are making on sometimes highly technical areas such as climate change, biotechnology, AI and vaccination.
So an understanding of the concepts underpinning the mathematical and computational sciences will allow people to become more informed and active citizens. It will also allow them to benefit from new technologies. It is a sad reality that those people in our society who today cannot use the internet are at a distinct disadvantage in almost all spheres of life. This capacity broadens people’s lives and provides them with a better appreciation of the world in which they live – not just the natural world, but also the world resulting from the technologies that are now being created.
It may be tempting to say that this aspiration is not realistic, that not everyone is going to be interested in maths, science and computation. But we would not accept this argument with respect to reading and writing. We know it is impossible to participate effectively in today’s society without literacy skills. We perhaps need to accept that it will be impossible to participate effectively in tomorrow’s society without some skills in maths, science and computation. We use writing skills to communicate with other people, but in a world where technology and machines play an increasingly important role, we also need to be able to communicate effectively with machines.
We owe it to our children to provide them with the knowledge and skills that give them the best chance of a successful, engaging and purposeful life. No doubt, achieving this will not be easy. But perhaps we can take inspiration from Professor Michelle Simmons’ 2017 Australia Day address:
I am grateful for that Australian spirit to give things a go, and our enduring sense of possibility. In this, we have so much to be thankful for – and, more importantly, so much to look forward to. But there is room for improvement as well. In our innovation policies, in our education system, and in the ambitions of our scientists and discoverers, I want Australians above all to be known as people who do the hard things.
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