The special sessions on Mathematics and Education Reform for this year are co-organized by William Barker, Bowdoin College; Dale Oliver, Humboldt State University, Bonnie Saunders, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Michael Starbird, University of Texas in Austin. The session is co-sponsored by the MAA Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM), the CUPM Subcommittee on Calculus Reform and the First Two Years (CRAFTY) and the MAA Committee on Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET) and the Educational Development Center (EDC). The sessions are organized around three themes.
organized by Steve Benson and Sarah Sword from EDC. Representing multiple settings and points of view, presenters in this session will describe the work they have done building collaborations between mathematicians, teachers, and teacher educators to improve student mathematics achievement in schools. The overarching themes of this session will include:
• Building mathematical communities of students, teachers, and professional mathematicians inside schools;
• Building leadership capacity among teachers; and
• Focusing on mathematics content in teacher professional development.
organized by Dale Oliver, COMET, and Bonnie Saunders, MER. For a decade or more, the attention of the mathematical community has been turning toward the mathematical education of teachers. Maintaining that attention, and further focusing that attention on productive roles for mathematicians and mathematics faculty, is a current and important activity of our mathematical associations. Achieving a sustained engagement of the mathematical community in the mathematical education and enhancement of teachers will require incremental cultural and institutional changes. Such changes might include greater involvement in the Ph.D programs that prepare mathematics teacher educators, structured long-term collaborations between university math faculty and K-12 math faculty, research institutes at the intersection of mathematics education and mathematics, and an undergraduate curriculum that naturally includes more of the faculty in the work of math teacher education. The presentations in the COMET-MER sessions address some of these ideas and provide additional challenges for the mathematical community and for departments of mathematics.
organized by William Barker, and Michael Starbird, CRAFTY and CUPM. During the previous decade the mathematics community spent much energy designing and implementing revised calculus programs. The "calculus reform movement" had a significant impact on calculus instruction across the country, with many of the issues raised during those years still under debate. Our series of talks, cosponsored by CRAFTY and the CUPM, hopes to illuminate some current issues in calculus instruction, particularly as they relate to various populations who are studying the subject. These populations include students who have been introduced to calculus through AP courses in high school, students who aspire to become K-12 teachers, students whose majors do or do not use calculus in a significant way,and the general public.
Abstracts are available for the talks, which are listed in this schedule:
Monday, January 8, 2007
8:00 am - 10:55 am
Building and Sustaining Communities of Mathematicians and Teachers
8:00 - 8:25
Al Cuoco, EDC, and Glenn Stevens, Boston University
The Building a Community of Mathematicians, Teachers, and Educators.8:30 - 8:55
Max Warshauer,Hiroko Warshauer, Alex White, Terry McCabe, and Alejandra Sorto, Texas State University, San Marcos
Creating Math Learning Communities Locally and using ITV.9:00-9:25
Tom Evitts and Kate McGivney, Shippensburg University
Connecting Teacher Learning to Classroom Practice: The Story of a Large-scale Professional Community.
9:30-9:55
Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Michigan State University
Building and Sustaining Communities of Mathematicians and Teachers..10:00 -10:25
Benjamin J. Sinwell
A Teacher's Perspective on Communities of Mathematicians and Teachers.10:30 -10:55
Bruce Pollack-Johnson, Villanova University
A Project-Based Re-Engineering of Business Calculus Focusing on Solving Real Problems Using Models and Technology: Change ``Will I Ever Use This?" to ``Wow! Math Can Really Help Me!".
Monday, January 8, 2007
1:00 pm - 5:55 pm
Sustaining Engagement of Mathematicians in the Mathematical Education of Teachers
1:00-1:25
William McCallum, University of Arizona
The Institute for Mathematics and Education at the University of Arizona.
1:30-1:55
Robert Reys, University of Missouri
National Conference on Doctoral Programs in Mathematics Education: What issues should be addressed?2:00-2:25
Charlene E. Beckmann, Grand Valley State University
Enhancing the Teaching of Euclidean Geometry..
2:30-2:55
James R King, University of Washington
Mathematicians and Teachers: From Summer Institutes to the School Year.
Calculus Instruction: Addressing a Variety of Populations
3:00-3:25
David M Bressoud, Macalester College
Report on Calculus at Macalester College..3:30-3:55
Scott Baldridge, Louisiana State University
Preparing Prospective Teachers to Teach AP Calculus.4:00-4:25
Bonnie Saunders, University of Illinois at Chicago
Teaching Calculus with Future Middle School Teachers.4:30-4:55
Mark L. Daniels, University of Texas at Austin
What is the effect of implementing a content/methods Calculus I course into a university science and mathematics secondary teacher preparation program?.5:00-5:25
David A. Smith and Lawrence C. Moore, Duke University
An Interactive Online Calculus Text.5:30-5:55
Michael Starbird, University of Texas at Austin
Calculus for the Public.
MER has planned gatherings at the joint winter meetings to enable participants to meet with others who are interested in educational issues. The first gathering was a reunion dinner for the participants of the 1988 MER workshop in Chicago. The reunion dinner has changed to an established MER banquet which can be attended by any interested participant of the joint meeting and is announced in the official program. The banquet is funded by individual ticket purchases. The MER Banquet is an opportunity to make or renew contacts with other mathematicians who are involved in education projects and to engage in lively conversation about educational issues. The after-dinner discussion is an open forum for participants to voice their impressions, observations, and analyses of the current education scene.
Tickets for the banquet may be purchased when registering for the meeting.