Discussing:

• Steven G. Krantz, How to Teach Mathematics, Chapters 1-3

Attending:

• Aleksandr Gorbenko, Patrick Lloyd, Daniel Collins, Kristin Polizotto, Tian Cai, Deborah Berhanu

Points:

• Question: What did you agree or disagree with?
• Moore Method: Surely inappropriate for our students.
• Question: Why are KCC students unprepared?
• K-12 prep as a problem for KCC students.
• Math anxiety among K-6 teachers, esp. females, who then communicate this to students (esp. girls who identify with teacher).
• The students get high school diploma without really learning math.
• Comparison to teacher qualifications in different countries/states.
• Specialist K-6 teachers would be the #1 thing to change (DRC).
• Working in groups outside of class — effective but possibly a challenge for our students — culturally, time constraints, socially, etc.
• Groups only effective if carefully chosen — someone who knows what they’re doing.
• Asian students may know how to do the problems & get good grades, but necessarily able to apply or engage with the world with that knowledge.
• Influence of home environment (in terms of academic discipline) and of social class.
• Do the suggestions in this book help all students? Effective across the board? (Probably.)
• Students cannot set up a problem — logically — because that unit is skipped in K-12.
• Logic not required at KCC (even in math department) — inductive & deductive reasoning is not required.
• Krantz recommends examples, then building/developing theorem.
• Other option: Principle/theorem, then proof, then examples (traditional in definition-theorem-proof-application).
• Daniel thinks traditional is better for students who will not be mathematicians. But Tian/Pat thought examples earlier on was better.
• Next meeting: Nov-22nd at 12:40 PM (to include outside grant observer).