Related papers: Some Thoughts on the Teaching of Mathematics -- te…
Several thoughts are presented on the long ongoing difficulties both students and academics face related to Calculus 101. Some of these thoughts may have a more general interest.
This essay, originally published in the Sept 1990 Notices of the AMS, discusses problems of our mathematical education system that often stem from widespread misconceptions by well-meaning people of the process of learning mathematics. The…
There have been several modifications of how basic calculus has been taught, but very few of these modifications have considered the computational tools available at our disposal. Here, we present a few tools that are easy to develop and…
Research universities in the United States have larger mathematics faculties outside their mathematics departments than inside. Members of this "extensive" faculty conduct most mathematics research, their interests are the most heavily…
This chapter takes a historical view of the development of mathematics education, from its initial status as a business mostly managed by mathematicians to the birth of mathematics education as a scientific field of research. Starting from…
This paper frames calculus as a global, centuries-long development rather than a subject that began only with Newton and Leibniz. Drawing on ideas from Greek, Indian, Islamic, and later European mathematics, it highlights how concepts like…
The aim of this chapter is to identify and characterise the pedagogical model prescribed for this particular mathematics teaching delivered in post-primary vocational training. More specifically, the contribution investigates two major…
In this note some philosophical thoughts and observations about mathematics are expressed, arranged as challenges to some common claims.
In this paper we discuss how teaching of mathematics for middle school and high school students can be improved dramatically when motivation of concepts and ideas is done through the classical problems and the history of mathematics. This…
We will outline our ideas for teaching in the core mathematics disciplines. They are based on our own experience in teaching at a number of universities in the USA, as well as in Europe. While some of the core ideas stay and have stayed…
Many mathematicians find mathematics aesthetically beautiful and even comparable to art forms such as music or painting. On the other hand, every year a great number of school students leave mathematics with total disillusionment and…
Mathematics enters the period of change unprecedented in its history, perhaps even a revolution: a switch to use of computers as assistants and checkers in production of proofs. This requires rethinking traditional approaches to mathematics…
This article of mathematical education reflects author's experience with job applications and teaching methods and procedures to employ in the American Higher Education. It is organized as a standard questionnaire.
The growing disconnection of the majority of population from mathematics is becoming a phenomenon that is increasingly difficult to ignore. This paper attempts to point to deeper roots of this cultural and social phenomenon. It concentrates…
This chapter presents a brief review of complexity research in mathematics education. We argue how research on complexity, as it pertains to mathematics education, can be viewed as an epistemological discourse, an historical discourse, a…
This article is a part of the report for the research project ``Reform of the Course System and Teaching Content of Higher Mathematics (For Non-Mathematical Specialties)'' in 1995, supported by the National Ministry of Education. There are…
Doing mathematics implies three levels of manipulation: manipulating the abstract, manipulating symbols and manipulating logic. Teaching mathematics therefore involves the teacher proposing situations in which pupils can explore a small…
"Math is not a spectator sport." "Lecturing is educational malpractice." Slogans like these rally some mathematicians to teach classes that feature "active learning", where lecturing is eschewed for student participation. Yet as much as I…
Over the past thirty years or so the authors have been teaching various programming for mathematics courses at our respective Universities, as well as incorporating computer algebra and numerical computation into traditional mathematics…
Usually the first course in mathematics is calculus. Its a core course in the curriculum of the Business, Engineering and the Sciences. However many students face difficulties to learn calculus. These difficulties are often caused by the…