Becoming a Mathematician


Book Description

This book considers the views of participants in the process of becoming a mathematician, that is, the students and the graduates. This book investigates the people who carry out mathematics rather than the topics of mathematics. Learning is about change in a person, the development of an identity and ways of interacting with the world. It investigates more generally the development of mathematical scientists for a variety of workplaces, and includes the experiences of those who were not successful in the transition to the workplace as mathematicians. The research presented is based on interviews, observations and surveys of students and graduates as they are finding their identity as a mathematician. The book contains material from the research carried out in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Canada and Brunei as well as Australia.




Mathematics Education for a New Era


Book Description

Stanford mathematician and NPR Math Guy Keith Devlin explains why, fun aside, video games are the ideal medium to teach middle-school math. Aimed primarily at teachers and education researchers, but also of interest to game developers who want to produce videogames for mathematics education, Mathematics Education for a New Era: Video Games as a Med




A Mathematician's Lament


Book Description

“One of the best critiques of current mathematics education I have ever seen.”—Keith Devlin, math columnist on NPR’s Morning Edition A brilliant research mathematician who has devoted his career to teaching kids reveals math to be creative and beautiful and rejects standard anxiety-producing teaching methods. Witty and accessible, Paul Lockhart’s controversial approach will provoke spirited debate among educators and parents alike and it will alter the way we think about math forever. Paul Lockhart, has taught mathematics at Brown University and UC Santa Cruz. Since 2000, he has dedicated himself to K-12 level students at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.




Mathematics for Human Flourishing


Book Description

"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.




Research and Development in University Mathematics Education


Book Description

In the last thirty years or so, the need to address the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics at university level has become increasingly appreciated by university mathematics teachers, and beyond, by educational institutions around the world. Indeed, mathematics is both a condition and an obstacle to success for students in many educational programmes vital to the 21st century knowledge society, for example in pure and applied mathematics, engineering, natural sciences, technology, economics, finance, management and so on. This breadth of impact of mathematics implies the urgency of developing research in university mathematics education, and of sharing results of this research widely. This book provides a bespoke opportunity for an international audience of researchers in didactics of mathematics, mathematicians and any teacher or researcher with an interest in this area to be informed about state-of-the-art developments and to heed future research agendas. This book emerged from the activities of the research project INDRUM (acronym for International Network for Didactic Research in University Mathematics), which aims to contribute to the development of research in didactics of mathematics at all levels of tertiary education, with a particular concern for the development of early-career researchers in the field and for dialogue with university mathematicians. The aim of the book is to provide a deep synthesis of the research field as it appears through two INDRUM conferences organised in 2016 and 2018. It is an original contribution which highlights key research perspectives, addresses seminal theoretical and methodological issues and reports substantial results concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics at university level, including the teaching and learning of specific topics in advanced mathematics across a wide range of university programmes.




The 'Resource' Approach to Mathematics Education


Book Description

This edited volume will help educators better analyze methodological and practical tools designed to aid classroom instruction. It features papers that explore the need to create a system in order to fully meet the uncertainties and developments of modern educational phenomena. These have emerged due to the abundance of digital resources and new forms of collective work. The collected papers offer new perspectives to a rising field of research known as the Documentational Approach to Didactics. This framework was first created by the editors of this book. It seeks to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics teaching expertise. Readers will gain insight into how to meet the theoretical questions brought about by digitalization. These include: how to analyze teachers’ work when they prepare for their teaching, how to conceptualize the relationships between individual and collective work, and how to follow the related processes over the long term. The contributors also provide a comparative view in terms of contrasting selected phenomena across different educational cultures and education systems. For instance, they consider how differences in curriculum resources are available to teachers and how teachers make use of them to shape instruction. Coverage also considers the extent to which teachers make use of additional material, particularly those available through the global marketplace on the Internet. This book builds on works from the Re(s)sources 2018 Conference, Understanding teachers’ work through their interactions with resources for teaching, held in Lyon, France.




The Mathematical Experience, Study Edition


Book Description

Winner of the 1983 National Book Award! "...a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1983 National Book Award edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world should support them at it. They also believe that mathematics should be taught to non-mathematics majors in such a way as to instill an appreciation of the power and beauty of mathematics. Many people from around the world have told the authors that they have done precisely that with the first edition and they have encouraged publication of this revised edition complete with exercises for helping students to demonstrate their understanding. This edition of the book should find a new generation of general readers and students who would like to know what mathematics is all about. It will prove invaluable as a course text for a general mathematics appreciation course, one in which the student can combine an appreciation for the esthetics with some satisfying and revealing applications. The text is ideal for 1) a GE course for Liberal Arts students 2) a Capstone course for perspective teachers 3) a writing course for mathematics teachers. A wealth of customizable online course materials for the book can be obtained from Elena Anne Marchisotto ([email protected]) upon request.




Mathematics in Physics Education


Book Description

This book is about mathematics in physics education, the difficulties students have in learning physics, and the way in which mathematization can help to improve physics teaching and learning. The book brings together different teaching and learning perspectives, and addresses both fundamental considerations and practical aspects. Divided into four parts, the book starts out with theoretical viewpoints that enlighten the interplay of physics and mathematics also including historical developments. The second part delves into the learners’ perspective. It addresses aspects of the learning by secondary school students as well as by students just entering university, or teacher students. Topics discussed range from problem solving over the role of graphs to integrated mathematics and physics learning. The third part includes a broad range of subjects from teachers’ views and knowledge, the analysis of classroom discourse and an evaluated teaching proposal. The last part describes approaches that take up mathematization in a broader interpretation, and includes the presentation of a model for physics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) specific to the role of mathematics in physics.




Teaching Math at a Distance, Grades K-12


Book Description

Make Rich Math Instruction Come to Life Online In an age when distance learning has become part of the "new normal," educators know that rich remote math teaching involves more than direct instruction, online videos, and endless practice problems on virtual worksheets. Using both personal experience and those of teachers in real K-12 online classrooms, distance learning mathematics veteran Theresa Wills translates all we know about research-based, equitable, rigorous face-to-face mathematics instruction into an online venue. This powerful guide equips math teachers to: Build students’ agency, identity, and strong math communities Promote mathematical thinking, collaboration, and discourse Incorporate rich mathematics tasks and assign meaningful homework and practice Facilitate engaging online math instruction using virtual manipulatives and other concrete learning tools Recognize and address equity and inclusion challenges associated with distance learning Assess mathematics learning from a distance With examples across the grades, links to tutorials and templates, and space to reflect and plan, Teaching Math at a Distance offers the support, clarity, and inspiration needed to guide teachers through teaching math remotely without sacrificing deep learning and academic growth.




Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education


Book Description

Critical Race Theory in Mathematics Education brings together scholarship that uses critical race theory (CRT) to provide a comprehensive understanding of race, racism, social justice, and experiential knowledge of African Americans’ mathematics education. CRT has gained traction within the educational research sphere, and this book extends and applies this framework to chronicle the paths of mathematics educators who advance and use CRT. This edited collection brings together scholarship that addresses the racial challenges thrusted upon Black learners and the gatekeeping nature of the discipline of mathematics. Across the ten chapters, scholars expand the uses of CRT in mathematics education and share insights with stakeholders regarding the racialized experiences of mathematics students and educators. Collectively, the volume explains how researchers, practitioners, and policymakers can use CRT to examine issues of race, racism, and other forms of oppression in mathematics education for Black children and adults.