DMC Newsletter July 2007
The Developmental Mathematics Committee of
AMATYC!
Chair’s Welcome by
Jack Rotman
Thanks for your participation in the Developmental Mathematics Committee (DMC). We are doing important work together!
Our 4 subcommittees are working on
projects or possible projects, as well as preparing for the next annual
conference (November 2007,
What does the committee need? The 4 subcommittees need volunteers to get involved; see the leadership list at the end. Also, we could really use a person to edit (put together) the newsletter; if you are interested … just let me know! email to Jack Rotman
Quick
Links to contents
Content,
Retention & Assessment Subcommittee Report
Faculty Development Subcommittee
Tips and Tricks; Information Needed:
Interpreting the value of
"X" Teri
Vonhandorf
Calculator as an ADA Accommodation Sandra Silverberg
Content, Retention & Assessment
Subcommittee
By Joseph Steever, chair of the subcommittee
We are considering the construction of a survey to determine developmental mathematics placement methods and scores used by community colleges around the nation. In particular, we are considering whether or not to proceed with such a survey, the means of distributing and collecting this survey, how to collect and separate data for the common methodologies of teaching developmental mathematics, and what other useful data we might collect on the same survey.
Faculty Development Subcommittee
Gail Burkett, chair of the subcommittee
We still hope to develop website with links to articles on math teaching, math assessment, math online, technology and general professional development; more on that later.
We all know the benefits of technology in education, but we also know that with good, comes some…not so good. A few students have manipulated and abused technology causing concern among faculty and staff. Whether its calculator use, cell phones or other programs, we want you to share your stories! The more informed we are of the creative ways students can manipulate tools, the better we can deal with the problem!
Also, do you have any comments or concerns about the overuse or abuse of technology in developmental math by faculty and staff? Let us know!
We have a new web page for ‘abuse of technology’ on the DMC website; try it http://devmath.amatyc.org/AbuseTechnology.htm and then contribute your tip or story.
Please send your short articles to Gail Burkett at
Instruction and Technology
Subcommittee Report
by Judy Giffin, chair
The Regional T^3 Conference brought nearly 300 participants
to the Rhodes State College campus in April, 2007. Nearly 60 “Teachers Teaching with Technology”
presented their ideas to mathematics and science instructors as they covered “K
through 16” topics. Our AMATYC
President-elect
Although technology is being used in the lower grades along with “hands-on” activities, most of our presentations and discussions involved TI- 83/84, TI-92 and Cabri, Calculator-controlled robots, TI-73 Explorer and TI Navigator as they are used to enhance learning in grades 9 through 16. Secondary educators evidently are especially interested in “smart-board” applications.
From the variety of topics covered in our relatively small T^3 conference, it becomes evident that we may want to discuss the practices used in secondary schools in our areas, especially to determine the effect on our prospective students. Will the new emphasis on technology (and higher graduation requirements) reduce the need for Developmental courses? Will more of our students be so familiar with the use of technology that we will be expanding our uses of technology? Naturally, those who are returning to college after many years away from class will continue to begin at the developmental level.
Hopefully we will have discussions throughout the summer and fall about the policies in our mathematics departments and possibly about our favorite classroom strategies. I plan to bring more information about the Regional use of technology (or lack of it). Also I plan to learn more about the TI-nspire which will be available to instructors this fall. Let’s bring many ideas and questions to work with at AMATYC this coming November.
Submitted by Teri Vonhandorf, Gateway Community and
Once my students have mastered solving for "X", the unknown, we spend a considerable time on application problems. The issue I was facing was that students were so excited about solving for "x" that they sometimes didn't answer the question being asked. For example, if the question was, "Fran earns $120 per month more than Rob. If they earn a total of $2,680 per month, what are their monthly salaries?"
Many of the students would set up the equation, solve, then answer X =1260 instead of stating both of their salaries. To help students interpret their answer, I firsthave them change the question into a statement and write it at the top of their paper, leaving blanks where they answers should go. To illustrate, the student would write " Fran's monthly salary is ________________ and Rob's monthly salary is___________. This forces the students to evaluate their finding and ensures they are answering the question being asked.
Calculator as an
Information needed!
How does your institution handle requests by learning disabled students for whom the calculator has been authorized as a “reasonable accommodation?” Specifically, do you allow learning disabled students to use a calculator for all assessment in arithmetic, even when the objective of particular sections of the course is to calculate?
Please send into to Sandra Silverberg (ssilverberg@bergen.edu) of
National Mathematics Panel by Jack Rotman
For a bit over one year,
the National Mathematics Panel has been working and meeting to carry out their
charge:
On April 18, 2006,
President Bush created the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The panel will
advise the President and Secretary Spellings on the best use of scientifically
based research on the teaching and learning of mathematics.
The focus of this
Panel is K-12 mathematics education. To
carry out their work, the Panel has formed 5 Task Groups; you can see their
most recent Progress Reports at the web site http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/7th-meeting/presentations/progressreports.html
I had the
opportunity to attend a meeting of this Panel in April of this year; they are a
diverse group with broad expertise, which is being applied to a very
challenging ‘problem’ (see the charge above!).
During that April meeting, I also had the chance to present comments; you
can see my comments at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/6th-meeting/presentations/rotman-jack.doc
.
Even more than my
own comments, I would encourage you to read the comments to the Panel made by
Hyman Bass on the nature of algebra.
They are available at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/2nd-meeting/presentations/bass-hyman.doc
.
Update on Committee
Business: AMATYC’s New Committees to Start November
2007
On November 4, the new AMATYC committee structure takes effect. These are the new committees:
Innovative Pedagogy Strategies
Division/Department Issues
Placement/Assessment
Teacher Preparation
Mathematics for AAS programs
Developmental Mathematics
Mathematics Intensive/College Mathematics
This new structure is the result of work over a 2 year period, with approval by both AMATYC’s Executive Board and the Delegate Assembly. As you can see, Developmental Mathematics will continue as a committee. Some existing committees will see their work distributed across all committees (such as Equal Opportunity and, to some extent, Distance Learning).
For the DMC, the primary changes will be operational. As part of the new committee structure, each committee will have some Regional Representatives; these Regional Representatives will form an Executive Committee, and the Executive Committee will meet at least once during the conferences (starting in 2008). No other changes to membership are involved; most DMC members will not notice any differences in the way we function.
For THIS conference (2007,
Chair’s Wanderings: What’s
Right, What’s Wrong
By
Note: This is part 1 of a 3 part
series on Developmental Mathematics; parts 2 and 3 will appear in our next two
Newsletters.
The original work
at the college level for our material was labeled “remedial mathematics”,
reflecting a philosophical position that the students needing this course were
there because of a lack – they needed ‘fixing’.
The content of these courses were often patterned after local high
school algebra courses, and (in many areas of the
Somewhat for
political reasons, the newer label “developmental mathematics” is used for the
same level of content. Although not
germane to this discussion, a true developmental approach involves other academic
preparation besides content. However,
the common perception is that we are still offering courses that parallel the
high school 9th to 11th grade math classes.
First,
a quick review of What’s Right in
our profession in terms of mathematical robustness:
There has been a real shift towards presenting mathematics as a set of
tools that can actually be applied to situations of interest to the students in
our classes. Our delivery of the
material is quite modern in many colleges (using technology in the classroom or
employing online learning tools). Our
textbooks include other types of problems besides procedural repetition; many
books give vocabulary or notation problems, or group projects, or chapter
applications.
What’s Wrong:
However, taken as a whole, it is my impression
that the content of our classes has not kept pace with other changes. In many parts of the country (
Many states have
curriculum standards for high schools that call for the inclusion of other
mathematics in addition to the classic algebra-as-preparation-for-calculus
material. The areas of statistics are
most often included, though geometry tends to be more integrated in high
schools; discrete mathematics (in some high school programs) may receive an
equal emphasis with the continuous approaches that underlie classic algebra and
calculus. The general lack of these
realms in developmental mathematics affects our students as they enter
subsequent mathematics courses and the work place.
Another
observation is that the content
of a developmental mathematics course is often procedurally dependent: If “it” does not lead to steps to solve or
simplify, “it” is not usually assessed.
The high school assessments often deal with goals of communicating with
mathematics on a regular basis, as well as the goal of generating alternate
approaches to the same problem. Typical
mathematics-intense courses at college are likely to emphasize conceptual
issues based on theory. None of these
assessment areas (communicating, generating alternatives, conceptual) tend to
be an integral part of most of our classes.
Underlying
both of these ‘wrongnesses’ is another wrong: We, as a group, tend to avoid the inclusion
of certain material or assessments because we judge them to be too difficult
for our students. From what I have seen
in our courses, this is mostly an issue for algebra (as opposed to
pre-algebra/basic math). As an example,
many of our students are in a health careers field; the biological sciences
have become quite mathematical. However,
we tend to not include work with exponential or logarithmic functions – partly
because we think it might be too difficult, and partly because we think it
belongs in college algebra or pre-calculus.
One could argue that exponential functions are a basic life skill (given
issues like infectious diseases, global warming, and criminal justice), leading
to a conclusion that we should cover these topics in a beginning ‘algebra’
course.
Our job is provide
the mathematics our students need at an appropriate level. When we modify this to be ‘avoid mathematics
that creates difficulty’, we penalize students at best … at worst, we insult the intelligence of our students by assuming they
can’t handle some challenges in mathematics.
“Don’t find fault …
find a remedy; anybody can complain.”
Henry Ford
What are some
remedies for the wrongs I list?
First, stay connected with the
local high schools and their mathematics courses and adapt as they change. We don’t
have to do the same things, but we can seek to provide a quality course at the
college level that reflects the high school situations.
Second, consider
non-procedural goals in your class. This might begin as a trip into
alternative assessments – but hopefully will evolve into an exploration of what
is truly important for students to learn in your courses.
Third, take a deep breath and
consider broadening the content of your courses in some basic ways. This
might involve integrating more statistics, geometry or discrete mathematics …
and could also include an examination of ‘tough topics’ that you’ve avoided
covering.
My goal with this
essay is to challenge your thinking and provide some possible direction. I’m not trying to convince you that I am right
(could happen, though J),
only that there might be some ideas worth pondering.
Consider what you could contribute to a future Newsletter.
“Contributions” does not mean “hours of work”. A contribution might be 25 words describing a cool website you’ve found. A contribution might be 50 words recommended a book you’ve read recently (related to math education). A contribution might be 100 words outlining something that seems to “work” for your students in the classroom or online. Just send your contribution to rotmanj@lcc.edu.
The website is doing well. The Syllabus project has a page there … the Newsletters are posted … and there is an electronic DMC membership form.
DMC Membership Form
If you know of anybody who might be interested in joining our committee (and if they belong to AMATYC), they can go to our web page to complete a membership form: Link to Online DMC Membership Form
Future Newsletters
The chair (
The next DMC newsletter is likely to be sent during September 2007; submissions are welcome!!
Official Leadership of the Developmental Mathematics Committee of AMATYC:
Subcommittee Chairs:
Eric Aurand Gail
Burkett
Research in Classroom Faculty
Development
EricAurand@dcccd.edu burkettg@pbcc.edu
Judy Giffin Joseph
Steever
Instruction &
Technology Issues Content,
Assessment, Retention
giffin.j@RhodesState.edu wcsteej@wcc.vccs.edu
Chair of the DMC Liaison to AMATYC Executive Board