Math with Bad Drawings


Book Description

A hilarious reeducation in mathematics-full of joy, jokes, and stick figures-that sheds light on the countless practical and wonderful ways that math structures and shapes our world. In Math With Bad Drawings, Ben Orlin reveals to us what math actually is; its myriad uses, its strange symbols, and the wild leaps of logic and faith that define the usually impenetrable work of the mathematician. Truth and knowledge come in multiple forms: colorful drawings, encouraging jokes, and the stories and insights of an empathetic teacher who believes that math should belong to everyone. Orlin shows us how to think like a mathematician by teaching us a brand-new game of tic-tac-toe, how to understand an economic crises by rolling a pair of dice, and the mathematical headache that ensues when attempting to build a spherical Death Star. Every discussion in the book is illustrated with Orlin's trademark "bad drawings," which convey his message and insights with perfect pitch and clarity. With 24 chapters covering topics from the electoral college to human genetics to the reasons not to trust statistics, Math with Bad Drawings is a life-changing book for the math-estranged and math-enamored alike.




Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics


Book Description

Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by recent reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts. The anniversary edition of this bestselling volume includes the original studies that compare U.S and Chinese elementary school teachers’ mathematical understanding and offers a powerful framework for grasping the mathematical content necessary to understand and develop the thinking of school children. Highlighting notable changes in the field and the author’s work, this new edition includes an updated preface, introduction, and key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.










Teaching Mathematics at Secondary Level


Book Description

Teaching Mathematics is nothing less than a mathematical manifesto. Arising in response to a limited National Curriculum, and engaged with secondary schooling for those aged 11 ̶ 14 (Key Stage 3) in particular, this handbook for teachers will help them broaden and enrich their students’ mathematical education. It avoids specifying how to teach, and focuses instead on the central principles and concepts that need to be borne in mind by all teachers and textbook authors—but which are little appreciated in the UK at present.This study is aimed at anyone who would like to think more deeply about the discipline of ‘elementary mathematics’, in England and Wales and anywhere else. By analysing and supplementing the current curriculum, Teaching Mathematics provides food for thought for all those involved in school mathematics, whether as aspiring teachers or as experienced professionals. It challenges us all to reflect upon what it is that makes secondary school mathematics educationally, culturally, and socially important.




Understanding and Teaching Primary Mathematics


Book Description

How would you teach the concept of odd and even numbers to a child? What is the probability of throwing a three on a six-sided die? How could you help a child who is confusing ratio and proportion? By seamlessly combining subject knowledge and pedagogy, the second edition of Understanding and Teaching Primary Mathematics will not only build your own confidence in mathematics, but also equip you with the curriculum understanding and pedagogical know-how to excel at teaching maths to children of any age. Written in a clear and accessible way, the book guides you through the fundamental ideas which are at the heart of teaching and learning maths, with special focus on observation and assessment of primary and early years children. Hallmark features Links to the classroom and research are provided throughout to help you relate educational theory to your own teaching practice. Portfolio and audit tasks allow you to assess your own subject knowledge and build up a portfolio of evidence to gain Qualified Teacher Status. The accompanying extra resources offers topic-specific self-audits for you to monitor your progress, exemplar lesson plans, a range of Portfolio Tasks mapped directly to current teacher standards and web-links to up-to-date online resources. New to this edition Resource Inspiration boxes give inviting examples of different activities to do with your class to provide inspiration for your own teaching. High quality videos with corresponding discussion, have been expertly selected from Teachers TV help to widen your skills and develop your practice, offering tips, lesson ideas and classroom resources.




A History of Mathematics Education in England


Book Description

The teaching of mathematics has a history stretching back some hundreds of years. From its infancy through to its adolescence institutions at which mathematics was taught were thinly and somewhat haphazardly spread over the country and so individuals were extremely influential in developing curricula and methods of teaching. Indeed this has continued to be a feature of English mathematics education. In this authoritative account Geoffrey Howson follows the history and development of mathematics teaching by looking at the careers of some of these individuals in detail.




The Teacher Development Continuum in the United States and China


Book Description

In 1999, Liping Ma published her book Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in the United States and China, which probed the kinds of knowledge that elementary school teachers need to convey mathematical concepts and procedures effectively to their students. Later that year, Roger Howe, a member of the U.S. National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (USNC/MI), reviewed the book for the Notices of the American Mathematical Society, concluding that it 'has lessons for all educational policymakers.' Intrigued by the idea of superrank teachers, the USNC/MI sponsored a workshop entitled 'The Teacher Development Continuum in the United States and China'. The purpose of the workshop was to examine the structure of the mathematics teaching profession in the United States and China. The main presentations and discussion from the workshop are summarized in this volume.




Mathematical Knowledge in Teaching


Book Description

The quality of primary and secondary school mathematics teaching is generally agreed to depend crucially on the subject-related knowledge of the teacher. However, there is increasing recognition that effective teaching calls for distinctive forms of subject-related knowledge and thinking. Thus, established ways of conceptualizing, developing and assessing mathematical knowledge for teaching may be less than adequate. These are important issues for policy and practice because of longstanding difficulties in recruiting teachers who are confident and conventionally well-qualified in mathematics, and because of rising concern that teaching of the subject has not adapted sufficiently. The issues to be examined in Mathematical Knowledge in Teaching are of considerable significance in addressing global aspirations to raise standards of teaching and learning in mathematics by developing more effective approaches to characterizing, assessing and developing mathematical knowledge for teaching.