Tuesday
February 12, 2002 |
Teaching Calculus
in the Computer Lab |
Bill Davis
The Ohio State University |
Math courses are things you have to take and pass. Someone said
so. Success in math is passing tests. It's part of the fabric of our
society. Do well on PSAT, ACT, SAT and, if you are very special, on AP
exams. Now the national goal is to lower that bar even more: You must
pass the state proficiency exams. That's all there is to
it. Understand? What's that? I do well on the tests, therefore I
understand. The attitude doesn't end when students enter the
university. We participate happily and freely in perpetuating the
attitudes. After all, what more can we expect? It's what the students
have been carefully taught, and we believe it's the best we can expect
from them. The current math teaching reform movement focuses on
changing the goals and the practices which exacerbate the
situation. This movement, the impetus to change the way math is
taught, has its roots in the calculus reform movement of the last
fifteen years. The majority of the courses written and implemented
under that rubric have the common goal of teaching understanding of
mathematical concepts along with the requisite skills. Ohio State's
contribution is the Calculus&Mathematica,
etc., courses. These computer based lessons, written with help from
colleagues at the University of Illinois, help students establish
correct intuitions and concept understanding in students at the same
time as skills. The goal is always to get students to solve
problems. However, a solution is not a solution if it doesn't contain
a careful explanation of what was done, why it was done, and what was
observed. Tony Nance and I will talk about the history of the courses
both here and elsewhere. We'll try to describe what they are, how
they are taught, and whether or not they are successful. We plan to
describe how the audiences have changed, how some of the results are
disappointing, and how this has given me the most rewarding teaching
experience of my many years of teaching.
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