Every so often, I’ll publicize through this blog an interesting article that I’ve found in the mathematics or mathematics education literature that can be freely distributed to the general public. Today, I’d like to highlight Manuel Santos-Trigo & Fernando Barrera-Mora (2011) High School Teachers’ Problem Solving Activities to Review and Extend Their Mathematical and Didactical Knowledge, PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 21:8, 699-718, DOI: 10.1080/10511971003600965

Here’s the abstract:

The study documents the extent to which high school teachers reflect on their need to revise and extend their mathematical and practicing knowledge. In this context, teachers worked on a set of tasks as a part of an inquiring community that promoted the use of different computational tools in problem solving approaches. Results indicated that the teachers recognized that the use of the Cabri-Geometry software to construct dynamic representations of the problems became useful, not only to make sense of the problems statement, but also to identify and explore a set of mathematical relations. In addition, the use of other tools like hand-held calculators and spreadsheets offered them the opportunity to examine, contrast, and extend visual and graphic results to algebraic approaches.

The full article can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10511971003600965

Every so often, I’ll publicize through this blog an interesting article that I’ve found in the mathematics or mathematics education literature that can be freely distributed to the general public. Today, I’d like to highlight Michael J. Cullinane (2011) Helping Mathematics Students Survive the Post-Calculus Transition, PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 21:8, 669-684, DOI:10.1080/10511971003692830

Here’s the abstract:

Many mathematics students have difficulty making the transition from procedurally oriented courses such as calculus to the more conceptually oriented courses in which they subsequently enroll. What are some of the key “stumbling blocks” for students as they attempt to make this transition? How do differences in faculty expectations for students and student expectations for themselves contribute to the “transition dilemma?” What might faculty incorporate into students’ learning experiences during the transition to help students better navigate the shift from procedural to conceptual, from concrete to abstract? This article offers some lessons learned in connection with these questions.

The full article can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10511971003692830

Every so often, I’ll publicize through this blog an interesting article that I’ve found in the mathematics or mathematics education literature that can be freely distributed to the general public. Today, I’d like to highlight Gizem Karaali (2011) An Evaluative Calculus Project: Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy to the Calculus Classroom, PRIMUS: Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 21:8, 719-731, DOI: 10.1080/10511971003663971

Here’s the abstract:

In education theory, Bloom’s taxonomy is a well-known paradigm to describe domains of learning and levels of competency. In this article I propose a calculus capstone project that is meant to utilize the sixth and arguably the highest level in the cognitive domain, according to Bloom et al.: evaluation. Although one may assume that mathematics is a value-free discipline, and thus the mathematics classroom should be exempt from focusing on the evaluative aspect of higher-level cognitive processing, I surmise that we as mathematics instructors should consider incorporating such components into our courses. The article also includes a brief summary of my observations and a discussion of my experience during the Fall 2008 semester, when I used the project described here in my Calculus I course.

The full article can be found here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10511971003663971