Catalogue
Course Description
MATH
501. ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS EDUCATION.
Intended for fifth-year students pursuing a credential or MAT in
elementary education. We
will examine the National mathematics standards, pedagogy specific to
mathematics learning, and research issues in elementary mathematics
learning. Content and methods will be discussed and utilized in the
classroom when appropriate. Prerequisite: enrollment in the fifth year
credential or MAT programs or permission of the instructor.
Course
as Part of Credential Program
This
course is one of many options for students who are enrolled in the M.A.T.
in Liberal Studies program. They
may choose any three “content” courses in any areas, and they do not
have to choose this course or even a course in mathematics.
Students who are enrolled in the multiple subject credential
program only (and not the M.A.T. program) usually do not take any
“content” courses during their graduate year.
Thus, they would not typically take this course.
There does not appear to be any movement at Occidental to make
this course a required part of the program, although the Education
Department does highly encourage M.A.T. Liberal Studies students to
elect this course.
General
Data on the Course
This course
has been taught at Occidental College six times.
The first five times it was taught in the regular academic year
and included all the components discussed throughout this document.
The most recent time this course was taught (Summer 2001), it was
taught in a short, five-week summer term.
In this case, the Action Research Project could not be
implemented due to time constraints and the fact that most of the
students were not in a classroom at that time. Additional focus was put on the Standards and Research Ideas
texts and on student development of teaching modules.
The
enrollment in the courses has ranged from five to twelve.
This represents nearly one-third to half of the M.A.T. Liberal
Studies students at Occidental each time the course is offered.
This
course has not been adopted at any other institution partly because of
its unique mix of research issues and Action Research Project along with
Standards discussions and content/pedagogy discussions.
Materials
The
three principle texts I have used in this course are as follows:
·
Principles
and Standards for School Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000.
ISBN: 0-87353-480-8.
·
Research
Ideas for the Classroom: Early
Childhood Mathematics,
Robert J. Jensen, Ed., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
Simon & Schuster Macmillan, New York, 1993.
ISBN: 0-02-895791-1.
·
Claudia
Zaslavsky, Fear of Math:
How to Get Over It and Get On with Your Life, Rutgers
University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1994.
ISBN: 0-8135-2099-1.
In
association with its Standards text, the NCTM has developed an
electronic version of the Standards at an extensive web site <http://standards.nctm.org/>
with a great variety of other useful tools and information.
In particular, they have developed electronic examples
(e-Examples) that coordinate with the Standards text.
Students
have also read supplementary research articles in elementary mathematics
education such as:
·
Deborah
Ball, “With an eye on the mathematical horizon: Dilemmas of teaching elementary school mathematics.”
The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 93, No. 4, 1993.
·
Constance
Kamii, “Constructivism and Beginning Arithmetic (K-1).”
In Teaching and Learning Mathematics in the 1990s:
1990 Yearbook. T.
J. Cooley, Ed. NCTM, 1990.
The
Research Ideas for the Classroom
series also has books for Middle
Grades Mathematics (Edited by Douglas T. Owens, ISBN: 0-02-895795-4) and High
School Mathematics (Edited by Patricia S. Wilson, ISBN:
0-02-895796-2).
Reading
Notebook
As
part of the course, I had student keep a reading notebook as they
reflected on the readings. Below is what I put in the information sheet regarding the
use of this notebook.
As
you do your readings in this class, I want you to be very active in your
reading process. To assist
you in this, I want you to keep a reading notebook every time you read a
chapter, an article, the Standards, etc.
I would suggest that you prepare your reading notebook as
follows. Take a regular
notebook and draw a line down the middle of each page.
Some notebooks, such as law notebooks I believe, are already
prepared in this way.
On
the left side of the line, keep track of the important ideas, themes,
and summaries of what you are reading.
Your goal is not to rework the entire reading in your notebook.
Rather it is an opportunity for you to sift out the important
ideas and keep track of these. Also,
it is a place where you can write down things you want to be able to
reference later in the class or in your career.
On
the right side of the line, reflect on these ideas in relation to you as
a teacher of mathematics. For
some assignments, especially the early ones, I will give a specific
prompt for your reflection. In
addition, you might consider the following.
As you read, do you agree or disagree with what is said?
Does the reading spark teaching ideas in you? Write them down and begin to develop them.
How is what you are reading relevant to you and your students in
your classroom? Does it
connect to other issues which have been raised in this class or
elsewhere in your education program?
As an example of the reflection prompts I would
give students, here is what I used for Chapter 1 of the Research
Ideas book:
How could you bridge informal knowledge and formal
knowledge in your classroom? Write
out a specific teaching example you could use in your classroom that
might bridge information knowledge your students have with the formal
knowledge you want them to gain. What
reactions do you have to the “myths” on page 18?
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