Mathematics

To make sense of the Common Core State Standards mathematical practice (MP) 8, this article illustrates what “repeated reasoning” means, why looking for and expressing regularity in it is such a valuable mathematical habit of mind, and how that differs from analyzing structure (MP 7) and from finding patterns in numerical results. 

This article presents an instructional strategy called Mathematical Bet Lines that was designed to promote classroom discourse and sense-making for all students, in particular English Language Learners.  Introduced in Project AIM (All Included in Mathematics), a 40 hour professional development program focused promoting meaningful mathematical discourse, the Mathematical Bet Lines strategy supports comprehension of story problems by having students articulate to themselves and others their predictions regarding what is happening in the problem as it is revealed one sentence a

Facilitating meaningful mathematical discourse is dependent on the launch of the lesson where teachers prepare their students to work on the task.

Get them talking: Your formula for bringing math concepts to life!

Mathematics standards in the United States describe communication as an essential part of mathematics. One outlet for communication is writing. To understand the mathematics writing of students, we conducted a synthesis to evaluate empirical research about mathematics writing. We identified 29 studies that included a mathematics-writing assessment, intervention, or survey for students in 1st through 12th grade. All studies were published between 1991 and 2015.

Students need basic mathematics to fully participate in and contribute to society throughout their lives; however, many of them are not developing the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need. The National Science Foundation’s DRK-12 projects are developing, implementing, and/or studying resources, models, and technologies for teacher and student learning that have the potential to expand our understanding and address some of the most compelling issues we face when challenged to improve student achievement in mathematics.

Arguments for significantly improving doctoral programs have long been made, both nationally (Bender, 1997; Jackson, 1996; Golde & Walker, 2006; Walker, et al., 2007) and internationally (Cumming, 2010). The nature and variety of doctoral programs makes it difficult to single out specific changes that would be equally applicable to every discipline-specific doctoral program. Therefore, this commentary will focus on doctoral programs and doctoral preparation in mathematics education.

Institutions in the United States have been producing PhDs in mathematics education for more than a century. Teachers College at Columbia University and the University of Chicago produced the first graduates in mathematics education in 1906 and 1912, respectively. In those institutions, doctoral students in mathematics education typically took courses along with doctoral students in mathematics. However, the dissertation research took a different direction as doctorates in mathematics education focused on issues related to mathematics learning, teaching, or curriculum.