Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Secondary Mathematics In An Urban Classroom, Julia Glissmann North

Honors Program Theses

Research and test scores have shown that African-American, Latino, Native American, and other minority students are underachieving in secondary mathematics. This is concerning not only to school personnel – who are under pressure to have students perform well on standardized tests – but also to the future of the country. When teachers adopt a culturally relevant pedagogy, diverse students will have a better opportunity to learn and retain mathematical content. When academic content is taught in a culturally relevant way, students are able to retain the information, improve their performance in school, and become more informed participants in society. Through …

Providing Preservice Teachers With Worthwhile Field-Based Experiences In Mathematics, Glenn Nelson

Faculty Publications

Providing preservice teachers with worthwhile field-based experiences is recognized as an important component in their development as good teachers. Because mathematics instruction in general has moved from a teacher-directed, procedurally-focused process to a more student-centered, conceptually-oriented approach, preservice mathematics education classes – especially methods courses - should reflect this shift as well. Field-based opportunities can be instances for preservice teachers to personally experience such a shift to real-world relevance.

Meaningful Distributed Instruction— Conceptual Previews For Symbolic Procedures, Edward C. Rathmell

Faculty Publications

Understanding a symbolic procedure means far more than “getting the right answer.” A mathematical symbolic procedure or written skill involves step-bystep thinking that leads from a computational problem to a solution. Memorizing this step-by-step procedure may enable a student to answer the problem, even answer it correctly. Yes, that is important, but understanding means much more.

Meaningful Distributed Instruction— Developing Number Sense, Edward C. Rathmell

Faculty Publications

What Is Number Sense?

The primary goal for elementary and middle school mathematics is to help students learn to use numbers meaningfully, reasonably and flexibly in everyday life. This means that students must develop a deep understanding of

-- numbers and operations,
-- when operations can appropriately be used to solve problems, and
-- judging the reasonableness of their solutions to problems.

They also need to develop attitudes so they

-- believe they can make sense of mathematics, and
-- habitually try to make sense of mathematics.

In other words, students need to develop number sense.

Understandings Needed for Number …

The Iowa Core Curriculum And Me: How My Teaching Of Mathematics Methods Will Change, Catherine M. Miller

Faculty Publications

It is an exciting time to be a mathematics educator in Iowa! We are joining the other 49 states by having a set of state standards. In fact, Iowa is exceeding federal expectations by having a curriculum to inform the work of teachers and school administrators. Because of this, we enter an era of change in Iowa and, as we know, change is never easy. To succeed in implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum (ICC) in mathematics all teachers need to learn about it and have help in implementing its core ideas and content. This includes teachers who will begin their …

Problem-Based Instructional Tasks, Larry Leutzinger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Conceptual Previews In Preparation For The Next Unit Of Instruction, Michele Carnahan, Bridgette Stevens

Faculty Publications

Understanding meanings of operations and how they relate to one another is an important mathematical goal for students in fourth grade (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). Using pictures, diagrams, or concrete materials to model multiplication helps students learn about factors and how their products represent various contexts. The foundation of understanding how operations of multiplication and division relate to one another deepens the understanding of the composition of numbers. Discussing different types of problems that can be solved using multiplication and division is important, along with the ability to decompose numbers. When students can work among these relationships …

Skittles Chocolate Mix Color Distribution: A Chi-Square Experience, David R. Duncan, Bonnie H. Litwiller

Faculty Publications

In teaching statistical processes, it is important that there be application to realworld settings and activities. When this is done, students are more likely to see the meaning of the steps being developed.

One such activity involves using the Chi-Square statistical test and its applications to counting Skittles Chocolate Mix candies. Many students are aware that these candies come in five different flavors: Brownie Batter (BB), Vanilla (V), Chocolate Caramel (CC), S’mores (S), and Chocolate Pudding (CP).

Selecting U.S. Senators By The Original Method: Intersecting Mathematics And Social Studies, Bonnie H. Litwiller, David R. Duncan

Faculty Publications

Mathematics teachers are concerned with incorporating connections with other academic areas in their mathematics curriculum. Social science provides a rich source of data which can be collected, organized, and interpreted by mathematics students. These data become of particular interest to many students if they involve political questions and processes.

Playing Games To Build Understanding, Michele Carnahan, Bridgette Stevens

Faculty Publications

I am fortunate. I teach from Investigations in Number, Data, and Space [TERC] (1996), a standards-based elementary mathematics curriculum. My evolution from teaching in a traditional teacher-centered approach to one that supports a student-centered community of learners has been a slow and gradual process during the past six years of teaching. Fortunately, through experience, professional development, and graduate level courses, I have come to appreciate the conceptual understanding students acquire from learning mathematics via a student-centered approach and how playing games is an effective instructional strategy for learning mathematics. As intended by the authors of Investigations and envisioned by the …