What is the Education of Mathematics Education Professors
Postscript: May 14th, 2006
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Begin Post Script Addendum: October 22, 2009)
Mathematics Teacher training programs which
employ math education professors who do not have a
knowledge of calculus and high school mathematics should lose
their certification until the host school or college for the
program provides mathematics education professor with a verified
command of calculus and high school mathematics. The needs
of the many should outweigh the needs and the acquired tenure of
the few. Mathematics Teaching Training programs
cannot sincerely justify the hiring and promotion of mathematics
education professors who lack a knowledge of the discipline less
than recommended by educational authorities for entrance into
their own programs.
I have met high school math teachers without a
formal background in mathematics or quantitative discipline. But
I have met mathematics education professors in charge of
mathematics teaching formation, mathematics education who lack a
full command of calculus and senior high school mathematics. As
consequence, would-be and in-service teachers cannot be properly
served nor guided by such education professor. Education
professors who lead or design math teacher education program and
who simultaneously monitor the quality of course design and
delivery in local schools need a mastery not only of pedagogy,
but also of subject matter. Colleges and universities which
give master degrees in education for theses on minor matters in
mathematics education are participating in a publish or perish
farce.
End Post Script Addendum: October 22,
2009)
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Are calculus phobic Mathematics Education Professors to blame for several
hundred or a thousand hours of mathematics instruction in primary and
secondary schools which fail to prepare students for college mathematics,
which fail to give students an efficient fraction skills and sense? Just
as we specify the minimal mathematics background of future secondary
school teachers, should we specify the minimal subject skill and
knowledge of Mathematics Education Professors.
In the present dark ages of mathematics instruction, Professors of
Mathematics Education have not emphasized the needs of college
mathematics or calculus in the training of primary school and high school
teachers, and in the design and exposition of high school mathematics
textbooks. Thus many students graduate from primary school and even
high school without efficient fraction sense and skills, and several
hundred to a thousand hours of mathematics instruction time come to
naught, less than expected, and may be written off as a
contribution to the education of many students. Site books and
further site areas point to remedies for self-application by students,
teachers and Professors of Mathematics Education. Professors of
mathematics education should teach first courses in differential and
integral calculus fully in order to know what calculus-driven standards
need to be emphasized in the mathematical formation of primary and
secondary school teachers, and of students in general.
Professors of Mathematics Education should take note
of earlier difficulties in mathematics, the introduction
and development of the shorthand algebraic way of writing and reasoning
in mathematics, and the inclusion of too many topics and directions in
course design which continue today. Professors of
Mathematics education need to read and correct textbooks in the student
catch basins of their universities, or they need to ask mathematics
professors in their college or university to perform this task for the
sake of quality and perhaps a leaner exposition of mathematics based on
the needs of calculus and before the elementary application of numbers
with measures and masses - two focuses for mathematics learning and
teaching. Here again mathematicians should be included so that
key skills and topics are emphasized and the logical need for some
topics questioned. Many college calculus instructors limit or disallow
the use of calculators because its ease of use and ill-use sabotages
the intellectual component of mathematics.
Professors of mathematics education who are calculus phobic should
be extremely rare or non-existence in Education Colleges and Faculties.
How common are they?
Finally, there guidelines for the formation of secondary mathematics
instructors call for many courses in mathematics at the college
level. For the sake of consistency, mathematics education professor
should have had a similar dose of mathematics and more. Anything
less calls into question the hiring and promotion policies in schools of
education.
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Teachers & Tutors: Site pages offer better or best practices for providing skills -
simpler than expected & comprehensive but for exercises. For your charges, your duty is to study them alone or in
groups and develop skill building exercises & activities to share. Start now. The effort here is the best I can do.
Others are welcome to refine or exceed it. Please do.
Secondary
Mathematics for Ages 11+, A Practical Approach for home-tutoring or -schooling, or for schools & colleges
with local curriculum control. Study how to include site content - its skill development how-TOs and innovations
into present or future lesson plans - some reading required.
Road
Safety Messages and Questions: When and why should you face
traffic when walking along a road or cycle path? Is it a good
idea to hang limbs outside of cars etc? What gives more
protection in a crash: a car, motorbike or bicycle?
See too, the BBC-Belgium story Texting and
Driving - texting & the impossible test - the article links to a gruesome utube video on the subject
The Logic of Injustice:
How Texas sent
an innocent man to his death - The wrong Carlos. Some judgments are irreversible. Procescution: Where and when prosectors play to win rather than for
justice, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt goes unrespected due to prosecutors who putting winning
first, those innocence before the law may be convicted. Some procescutors offices in continuing to accuse after a pardon
due to reasonable doubt or innocent being shown, may sucessfully oppose compensaton for false convictions
by asserting a pardon individual is still under suspicion. Then the pardoned individual or the latter's estate
is not compensation for years or decade
of improper or false imprisonment, or for execution. Site chapters on Logic
and some in Pattern
Based Reason may slowly lead to greater precision in reading, applying and
writing laws.
May 2012, Composition Starting:
Pre-School and Primary Mathematics - Quantitative Skills, An
Intellectual View, Feedback Welcome:
The 8 Most Popular Site Inlinks
Parent Center: Help your child or teen
learn:
Parent-friendly
Work Booklets for ages 3+ to 13 Use these or others to check
or build skills. Other booklets are available but these booklets
allow parents unsure of themselves in mathematics to help their
children. The selection acquired in Canada is published in the
USA. So it has a US orientation. In retrospect, the selection
shows parents what to check with the booklets or by other ways,
the choice is theirs. But in retrospect, the selection does not
cover integral and fractions liquid weights and measures - ask
the publishers to correct that! For ages 9 to 12 say, parents may
compensate by showing boys and girls how to use weights or mass,
and further measures in food preparation. Beyond that children
may be shown how to measure and calculate angles, lengths and
areas [proportional amounts too] directly or by using maps and
plans drawns to scale. Learning how to gather and measure all the
ingredients, pots and pans for a dish or a meal, along with
cleaning up sets the stage for like activities or experiments in
science courses, and in developing organizational skills,
gives boys and girls a head start. Good luck. At the other
extreme, more comprehensive than light, if your motto is
McCainian: drill, drill, drill then Toronto
mathematician and actor John Mighton's jump math organization has jump math
workbooks for at least grades 3 to 8 for at-home and in-school
use - training sessions for teachers available. Jump math has
been expanding to cover older students. Jump Math Samples: plus
Fractions for
Grades 3-4 & Grades 5-6 [Read] Free Resources grades 1 to 8
[unread - likely to be good]. and
Mathematics
Skills For Ages 3 to 14 - technical!
Skills with take
home value - A few ideas
Basic skills include
time-date-calendar Matters; money matters; map, plan and
scale diagram matters;counting, measuring and figuring;
decision making with logic and likelyhood; being careful and
being aware of the domino effect of mistakes; reading and
writing with precision.
Is your child able to add, subtract and multiply amounts
of money, work with fractions, work with clocks and calendars,
work with maps and plans, and measure length, weight-mass and
volume? Schools may promote your son or daughter without
providing basic skills in reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Arithmetic
and Number Theory Skills
Algebra
Starter Lessons
Geometry
- maps plans trigonometry vectors
More
Algebra
70
Calculus Starter Lessons
Calculus Lessons Elsewhere:
-
How to Ace Calculus: Street Wise Guide - Mostly
Text.
-
Flash
Video for Calculus Phobics
They cover basic topics in ways likely to complement your
notes, your textbooks and site material. When Goldilocks
trespassed in the house of the three bears, she found three bowls
of porridge, two not to her liking, and one just right. Different
bears have different tastes. As invited guest here and elsewhere,
if one or more explanations is not to liking, try another. It may
be better or just right.
Unsolicited Advice
Learning to do and high marks if it comes to easy is often
deceptive - light rather than deep. For that reason, students
with learning difficulties determined not to let it get in their
way may go deeper and farther than those with none. High marks,
if the come easy, may be deceptive - provide a too light and not
a deep mastery. That could have been your problem in secondary
school, one that leads to comprehension shock or difficulties in
calculus and more generally in the first year of college. Bon
Appetite.
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