Teaching Mathematics Discussion Group
We meet Tuesday at 12:20 to 1:30pm in 216 McAllister Bldg. Please email the current organizers Aleksey Zelenberg at [email protected] or David Zach at [email protected] to join the mailing list.
The current schedule can be found here.
You can find a list of past meetings and topics here.
The current schedule can be found here.
You can find a list of past meetings and topics here.
Who are We?
We are a collection of people connected to mathematics and higher education in some way. We discuss some of the challenges associated with teaching mathematics at the college-level as well as some techniques we've developed to overcome those challenges. The meetings are informal.
About
As you may know from personal experience, the transition from high school to college can be a difficult one; nonetheless, it's an important transition for students to make. How students make that transition in their math classes will affect the total number of STEM-field degrees of an institution. Indeed, the American Mathematical Society's report Towards Excellence: Leading a Mathematics Department in the 21st Century concludes that striving for excellence in research necessitates striving for excellence in instruction. In essence, instruction is what connects academia to the rest of society and that connection works both ways.
What does excellence in instruction mean? Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information on education at the undergraduate level. The majority of research focuses on K-12 education. Still, there is some information out there worthy of consideration. In each meeting, we discuss different educational topics and think about how these topics could work in practice. The goal is to stimulate the thinking process and inspire participants to come up with solutions that will work for them and their classrooms.
What does excellence in instruction mean? Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information on education at the undergraduate level. The majority of research focuses on K-12 education. Still, there is some information out there worthy of consideration. In each meeting, we discuss different educational topics and think about how these topics could work in practice. The goal is to stimulate the thinking process and inspire participants to come up with solutions that will work for them and their classrooms.