Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason (www.whyslopes.com)
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||Définition d'une variable || Algèbre || Arithmetique || Logique ||La raison basée sur les règles et modelés||

Online Volumes
1,  Elements of Reason.
1A. Pattern Based Reason 
1B. Math Curriculum Notes
2. Three Skills for Algebra
3. Why Slopes & More Math
 (Optional Book Orders)
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2. Solving Linear Equations
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7. More Calculus
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9. Qc Maths  Education  
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** Means Under-construction.

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HIP, HIP, HIP, Hooray
YOU are better than YOU think. Show yourself  how:
  

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Read  logic chapters 1 to 5  in online volume Three Skills for Algebra  for greater skills & confidence in  work 
and study

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 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

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 liinear2007 Equations ; or (b) see this calculus starter lesson and Volume 3, Why Slopes  & More Math, chapters 2 to 6;

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

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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.

 


Foreword (an intro to all site books)

Mathematics teachers hould see the second part  - the first part provides a context for the second part and further site volumes. Bon Appetit.

The first part  Pattern Based Reason of this volume  Elements of Reason describes rule and pattern based thought and processes in daily life, society, science and technology. Reliable rules and patterns can be followed one at a time or one after another to obtain conclusions or results. Not solved is the problem of identifying reliable rules and patterns to employ. Instead, the empirical method of coping with this problem is discussed.

Elements
of
Reason

understanding and explaining
 reason and math
Volume 1

by
Alan M. Selby
Ph. D.

Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-9697564-1-0

Rule and pattern based thought and processes touch many arts and disciplines. Awareness of the difference between one- and two-way implication rules will improve reading, writing and argumentation skills. Students of critical thinking, persuasion, philosophy, mathematics, science and technology may find this first part worth reading.

In both arithmetic and logic, rules and patterns if followed carefully lead to results which are repeatable and reproducible, and thus verifiable and objective: two individuals following the same rules and patterns with the same data or in similar circumstances should obtain the same or similar results.  Arithmetic and deductive reason are but examples of verifiable rule and pattern based thought or processes.

Verifiability, repeatability and reproducibility form a basis for the appreciation of, if not reliance on, rule and pattern based thought and processes. This appreciation should not be too firm.  The identification of reliable rules and patterns, or reliable data to use with them is not certain.  Further, where rules and patterns do not apply mechanically,  there is room for thought. Still, verifiability, repeatability and reproducibility may provide a basis for the common knowledge and informal mastery of a subject.

The second part  Mathematics Curriculum Notes is for teachers and advanced students of mathematics or a quantitative college discipline.  This part describes simply yet precisely, the role of rule-based reason, that is logic, in providing a thought-based framework and codification for mathematical thought.  This second part further describes how an inductive educational philosophy provides a context for math and logic instruction from primary school to college.  Ideas which are easily repeated and understood may provide a common knowledge  of mathematics and the rule-based reason sufficient for a more formal and rigorous comprehension.


This two-part work and its the companion volumes  Three Skills for Algebra  and Why Slopes and More Math  stem from a project to write a single book, namely Ideas that Might Count for Education, Reason and Mathematics. That single book (no longer available) was written and distributed. It covered a vast number of topics. Some of interest to one audience but not to another. With further writing and rewriting, this first endeavor was divided into three volumes, the first of which, the one before you, was divided into two parts. Writing for some is an iterative affair.

The initial aim was to report some unique idea, innovations, for math and logic instruction. These ideas or lessons had worked well with college students, shy or curious about one or both disciplines. But in writing and rewriting, the  aim became wider. The possibility of a consistent and coherent scheme for math and logic instruction from primary school to college was seen and explored. The scheme is  comprehensive save for the treatment of geometry.  How to fit or emphasize Euclidean geometry in the curriculum is not covered.

Formal mathematics can be difficult to follow for students who fail to grasp deductive thought and the  symbol-based algebraic way of writing and reasoning.  The latter like arithmetic is better seen and written than spoken aloud. Symbols like pictures can be worth a thousand words.  Words have been missing to explain the role of symbols in providing the shorthand notation of mathematics or its algebraic way of writing and reasoning. The latter consists of recording and developing thoughts on paper at least for those among us afflicted with a short or too forgetful memory.

The absence of a verbal culture to introduce and explain the algebraic way of writing and thinking leaves its mastery to  immersion and osmosis. Comprehension depends on one's aptitude for learning some basic ideas by immersion.  I am in the radical position of suggesting that a  certain change is possible and desirable.  This work and its companions suggest how.  They have yet to be formally peer reviewed and so should be read with caution.  The discussion of math and logic instruction and the discussion of reason and persuasion are both fraught with controversy. Scrutiny or critical examination of this work may lead to its refinement.

Alan Selby
Montreal 1996.

Descriptions of Site Books

  • Volume 1, Elements of Reason, its first part, entertains and informs apart from mathematics, as it describes logic, critical thinking and problem solving skills for many arts and disciplines: Learn about  the benefits, origins,  limits and risks of rule- and pattern-based activities and explanations.  Develop a critical command and understanding of  science and technology before defending or attacking any part. Learn how patterns are suspected or recognized, and learn what patterns can be tested before jumping to conclusions or alternatives. 

  • Volume 2, Three Skills for  Algebra, offers gifted & adult students a clearer  way to review  logic and algebra  Logic is put first as difficulty in it leads to faults in reading and writing in work and studies. Putting words before and besides symbols makes algebra easier to learn and teach.

  • Volume 3, Why Slopes and More Math, gives calculus students  the clearest  way (?) to preview or introduce the subject and ease or avoid initial algebra shocks.   With a few suggestive diagrams, the easiest part of calculus can be mastered with only a knowledge of slopes and polynomials. That gives a calculus preview or review plus a first context for calculus.

  • Volume 1B, Mathematics Curriculum Notes, the second part of Volume 1, Elements of Reason,, is also online in  pdf  form.    First chapters give a 1996 view of  old flaws in past course design,  expositions on which site material stands, a view that mistakenly assumed no trouble with the mastery of arithmetic.  Inductive principles for education  like those in  mathematics requires (i) all steps be well-put and well-defined, (ii) the first steps be accessible, and (iii)  further steps also be accessible from earlier ones.  The inaccessibility of some parts of mathematics points to hidden curriculum - concepts or skills not explicitly described.

The triplet 2, 3 and 1A could enrich the knowledge of gifted students or prepare for calculus; the pair 1A and 2 could build skill and confidence for algebra beginners and literate mathphobics, while 1A alone is for avid readers in school or out -  

 



     Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Selby, Alan M,
    Understanding and Explaining reason and math


Contents: v. 1. Elements of Reason - v. 2. Three Skills
  for algebra - v.3. Why Slopes and more math.
ISBN 0-9697564-4-5 (set) -
ISBN 0-9697564-1-0 (v. 1) -
ISBN 0-9697564-2-9 (v. 2) -
ISBN 0-9697564-3-7 (v. 3) -

   1. Mathematics--Philosophy.   2. Reason.
3. Algebra. 4. Calculus. I. Title. II. Title: Elements of
reason. III. Three Skills for algebra. IV. Title: Why Slopes and more math.

QA8.4.S44             1995                510'.1          C95-900945-0
 
Reprinting may lead to new ISBN numbers.

 

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Help U Learn/ Teach

  1. Algebra
    words before symbols - direct & indirect use of formula, numerical versus algebraic solutions - what is a variable (more words)
  2. Arithmetic
    - exercises
    - with fractions
    - videos on primes, lcm, gcm,lcd, square roots etc
  3. Calculus - geometric preview, algebraic preview,
    3 study guides,
    much more
  4. Complex numbers
    -starter lesson with java applet - easy consequences  for trig & vectors in the plane
  5. Education
    - Empirical Course Design & Delivery
  6. Fractions
    - alone
    - by rote
    - with algebra
    - videos
  7. Functions - introduction
    hindsight - composition aka
    substitution
    -
  8. Geometry, Euclidean - Correspondence of trianglesTriangle construciton,  duplication & Isometry - Failure of ASA & the // line postulate - angle sum in triangles -// grams - Triangle Similarity
  9. Geometry- Analytic - functions, polynomials, complex numbers, unit circle trigonometry
  10. Logic
    - First Steps -
    Symbols in Logic -
     Occurrence & Truth Tables - Indirect Reason -Indirect Reason More
  11. Proportionality
    - Definition - Direct & Indirect Use - Numerical versus Algebraic Solutions
  12. Real Analysis
    - Decimal View of concepts and of proofs
  13. Rules &Patterns in Science, Technology & Society - Pattern Based Reason
  14. Mathematical Reasoning, empirical, inductive or deductive
  15. Units
    - in rates & slopes & (?) derivatives
    - in ratios & proportions - slopes & rates included
  16. Complex Numbers & Vectors & Trig
    trig expression for dot & cross - cosine law

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