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Texas A&M University
Mathematics

Lines in the curriculum: A persistent obstruction to achievement connecting algebra and geometry

Date: November 15, 2019

Time: 12:30PM - 1:30PM

Location: BLOC 220

Speaker: Michael Fried, University of California at Irvine

  

Description: The topic of lines in the curriculum has conceptual teaching difficulties that you can't solve only by applying the typical blue-ribon interventions:

  1. better prepared teachers; and
  2. assuring students have perfect educational beginnings.
  • The subject, lines, passes through many different conceptions moving from 3rd grade to 12th grade and then to sophomore college classes. So much so, that a great 3rd grade teacher, or sound understanding of the number line won't suffice for a student's ultimate success on related math concepts.
  • There is a wipeout problem. One not covered alone by increasing resources in 1st year calculus. We document that an epiphany is possible with administration in The Howard Thompson Story . We document a remedy with – not necessarily exceptional – students in Interactive E-Mail Assessment, MAA Vol. on Assessment, B. Gold, S.Z. Keith, and W.A. Marion, eds., #49, Wash. DC, 1999, 80-84.
  • Technology – I(nteractive) Q(uestionnaire)s (IQs) – appears here in a surprising way, to gather information from an ordinary class, run by an ordinary instructor. The style of programming is less critical than the form of the curricular assessment