www.whyslopes.com 
Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason 
calculus, preparation for calculus + math education reform

Online Volumes (Book Orders)
1,  Elements of Reason.
1A. Pattern Based Reason 
1B. Math Curriculum Notes
2. Three Skills for Algebra
3. Why Slopes & More Math

Mathematics Course Designers: LAMP offers food for thought.
More Site Areas 
1. Help Your Child or Teen Learn 
2. Solving Linear Equations
3. Fractions Ratios Rates Proportions & Units
4. Euclidean Geometry
5. Analytic Geometry/Functions 
6. Number Theory
7. More Calculus
More Site Areas 
8. Complex Numbers 
9. Quebec Maths  Education  
10. Secondary IV(?) maths
11. Real  Analysis 
12. LaTeX2HotEqn:
13. Electric Circuits Etc  
14.  Français
15. Algebra, Odds & Ends, Etc
More Site Areas 
16. Math Education Essays
17. Telling & Working with Time
18. Maps, Plans & Drawings
19. Quantitative Skills for  home, shopping and work 
20. Statistics Useful, or Not.
Try the
Twiddla Whiteboard
to work online with others.

||Définition d'une variable || Algèbre || Arithmetique || Logique ||La raison basée sur les règles et modelés||
[Site Entrance & Hub]Back ] Book Entrance ] Up ] Next ][Site Exit]


  

     |      
//  _   _ \\
/\             /\
  <|  (o)   (o)   |> 
 \     | |      / 

Have your gifted students read  logic chapters 1 to 5  in online volume Three Skills for Algebra  for greater skills & confidence in  work 
and study.

tell students to read notes and textbooks like a lawyer, so that no nuance, no subtlety and no clause escapes their attention.

 -/[]\- 
||
   / \_ 
 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

 Logic chapters 1 to 5  re- appear not in sequence, as is or longer,  in  Volume 1A,  Pattern Based Reason, Bon Appetite.

Logic Mastery
 Amazing, Amusing, Amorous,  Delicious, Delightful, Edifying, Strengthening Elixir. 
It eases work & learning difficulties Makes the hard easier. Opens eyes. Leads to greater precision.
in reading and
writing

Tell students that Logic mastery makes the hard, easier. Logic mastery  leads to better, stronger and richer comprehension.  Logic mastery  improves reading and writing.  Logic mastery ease learning difficulties.  Logic mastery gives a headstart.  In sum, logic mastery  will develops critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and give a firmer base for work and studies at many levels. Good luck.


After logic  (a) continue reading Three Skills for Algebra, chapters 8 to 14  and do so alongside site area on solving liinear Equations ; or (b) see this calculus starter lesson and Volume 3, Why Slopes  & More Math, chapters 2 to 6. In Volume 2, Three Skills for Algebra,  a 4th skill for algebra appears in Chapter 14. It provides a unifying theme for high school mathematics - equations and formulas may be used forwards and backwards, directly and indirectly, numerically in arithmetic solutions & with literals in algebraic solutions.

      |      
//  _   _ \\
/\             /\
<|   (o)   (o)  |> 
     | |     |
   \             /   
\    =   /

Caution: Site advice is approximately correct, for some circumstances, not all. That leaves room for thought

 -/[]\- 
||
  _ / \     
 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

What may be learnt and when depends on how skills and concepts are developed. Making the hard easier and clearer will allow earlier & richer development of skills and concepts.


Try the Twiddla Whiteboard. In principle, it  allows to people to draw and chat together online on a copy of this webpage or a clean sheet. The chat may be via text or audio.  Visit www.twiddla.com to set up whiteboards to work with the webpage of your choice.

For online automated help in senior high school maths & calculus, visit  quickmath.com  For Automatic Calculus and Algebra Help with derivatives, integrals, graphs, linear equations, matrix algebra, visit calc101.com  With  overlap, each site quickmath & calc101offers a different range of services, some free, some not, all based on webmathematica. Good luck.


Chapters 1
Keys to Success

Previous: 1 Lowering Barriers

The deductive and algebraic examples described above could be keys to the success of intermediate level instruction. They are easily described and repeated. They offer a wide and accessible image of mathematics. With such an extension of the common knowledge of mathematics, students reaching the more deductive expositions of advanced courses will be aware or know what concepts are being axiomatically codified and replaced. Two coexisting lines of thought can be mastered, one common and easily explained, and one refined and more deductive. Masters of mathematical exposition may give one and then the other line of thought in their presentation of a topic.

Both students and teachers can recognize that there is an informal presentation of mathematics and pattern-based thought, in which ease of exposition is the guide, and that there is a separate codifications and framework for the rigorous and formal development of mathematical thought. Currently putting the latter first provides the barrier to any extension of the common knowledge. Putting the informal description first may extend the common knowledge and provide a context or background for the more rigorous exposition. Here informal mixing of algebraic, geometric and physical reasoning departs from the pure deductive exposition of mathematics from symbolically and algebraically stated axioms or assumptions about sets or numbers. But the deductive exposition itself may become more understandable and accessible in the context for it provided by the departure. Within the framework provided by the departure, advanced mathematics is given a context for its rigour and an abstraction from the now extended, common knowledge.

The above approach parallels that found in the historical development of analytical or algebraic thought. Examples and strands of reasons were developed first and then threaded together in a more and more rigorous fashion. Elementary and intermediate instruction can provide examples or informal strands of mathematical reasoning – an operational command and preview of the subject – which higher instruction can gradually codify. That is, higher instruction may fit this operational command into the axiomatic development and exposition of mathematics. Instructors of higher mathematics may say to their students: here is the common or easily understood representation of this idea which you have met before, and here is how it can be deduced from axioms.


More Chapter 1 Sections:  Up ] 1 Two Barriers ] 1 Lowering Barriers ] [ 1. Keys to Success ] 1 Units & Decimals ] 1 Chapter Guide ]

Next: 1 Units & Decimals - Missing Links

 

www.whyslopes.com
Volume 1B, Mathematics Curriculum Notes,

 Foreword + Chapters 1 to 10 + 12

Book Entrance
Inductive Principles
1 Introduction
2 For & Against Math
3 Algebraic Thought
4 Why Slopes & SQRT of -1
5  Books & Articles to Read
6 Unruly Origins of Algebra
6. Axiomatic Civilization
7 Geometry, 2 Ways
8 Modern Instruction
9 The Two Ends
10 The Transition
10 Explaining Logic
10 Explaining Algebra
10 Why Sets in Math.
12 Four Phases
Links

Chapter 11: Primary School Mathematics

11 Primary Math
11 Cue Cards
11 Counting
11 Decimals - Addition
11 Decimals -Times
11 Decimals & Subtraction
11 Fractions and Division
11 Notational Conflict
11 Reciprocals Etc
11 Decimals - Ratios
11 Size Comparison
11 Numbers, +ve or -ve
11 Rename < Sign
11 Complex Numbers

Will provide an alternative to Chapter 11 later, most likely in the Parent's Area: Help Your Child or Teen Learn 

Most students in high school are not heading for calculus, but most topics in high school mathematics are present due to calculus.  Preparation for calculus demands their coverage at  full strength.

See too, this site 55+,  Math Education Essays. Site areas and pages provide pieces of the a Mathematics Education, Jigsaw Puzzle, in formation.

-Inductive principles for course design & delivery  require a clear description of where and how skills and concepts may rest on earlier ones, so that difficulties may be explained and remedied by looking for  what was missed or forgotten in earlier studies. 


Mathematics is a demanding subject. All errors in notation and comprehension need to be identified and corrected. In reading, spelling and writing, students have to learn all the letters in the alphabet, not just some. and memorize spelling. Anything less implies difficulty.

Likewise in mathematics, students have to master key skills and concepts, one at a time and one after another. Anything less implies difficulty.


Modern mathematics curricula introduced an inconsistency into course design and delivery. They did not sanction the use of decimals nor the use of diagrams in skill and concept development but decimal arithmetic and diagrams are needed for student comprehension and for an operational mastery of quantitative skills. That implies the need for an mixed-math curricula based on a systematic development of operational skills, sufficient for applications and sufficient to provide a base & context  for  the very optional study of pure mathematis.


 


www.whyslopes.com

[Top of this Page] [Site Exit] Back ] Book Entrance ] Up ] Next ]
[Comments, Reactions, Feedback][ Road Safety Message ]
: Favourite SitesBBC News  and mathematics portion of  English National Curriculum  



All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Copyright to comments & contributions are owned by the Poster. 
The Rest © 1995 onward by site author,   Alan Selby,
a 1983 McGill. Ph. D. in mathematics
All Rights Reserved.