Education Commons^™

Parts Of The Whole: Logical Categories Of Learning: Why Teaching Qr Is Hard, Dorothy Wallace

Numeracy

This column introduces the reader to an essay by anthropologist Gregory Bateson on the nature of learning. In that essay, he stratifies the learning process into categories based on what aspect of the student’s understanding is required to change in order to accomplish a given learning task. A discussion of the first three categories is followed here by examples from quantitative reasoning tasks and a further example from the ongoing discussion in the community of what numeracy entails. Bateson’s classification of learning into “logical categories” sheds light on what the goals of numeracy ask of both student and teacher, as …

Introducing Maa Notes #88: Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy In Higher Education, Samuel L. Tunstall, Gizem Karaali, Victor Piercey

Numeracy

Tunstall, Samuel, Gizem Karaali, and Victor Piercey, eds. 2019. Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education (Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America) 258 pp. ISBN 978-1614443247.

This brief essay introduces readers to Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education, a new edited volume published by the Mathematical Association of America. We begin by describing the story behind the volume, and then outline its four major parts: "A Bird’s Eye View," "Curriculum for Quantitative Literacy," "Quantitative Literacy in an Institutional Context," and "Perspectives from the Quantitative Literacy Community." We end with an excerpt from …

An Uncommon Textbook: Review Of Common Sense Mathematics By Ethan Bolker And Maura Mast, Bernard Madison

Numeracy

Ethan D. Bolker and Maura B. Mast. 2016. Common Sense Mathematics.(Washington DC.: Mathematics Association of America) ISBN-13: 978-1-93951-210-9.

Common Sense Mathematics is an integrative quantitative reasoning (QR) textbook that is built around scores of exercises derived from authentic circumstances from public media and other public sources. The exercises elicit responses from students requiring extensive communication and analyses and distinguish the book from ones typically encountered in a mathematics or science course. Responses to exercises often require one-half page or more of writing and can occupy considerable class time in discussion. The book has material for a one- or two-semester …