Archived Information

State of the Art: Mathematics - July 1993

image omitted Students need to learn more and different types of mathematics.

It is now possible to execute almost all of the mathematical techniques taught from kindergarten through the first two years of college on hand-held calculators. 
                      (Mathematical Sciences Education Board 1990, p. 2)
The need for a work force equipped with more and different mathematical concepts is transforming the mathematics curriculum. Nonroutine problems rarely involve ideas from just one part of mathematics. Just as the printing press made calligraphy obsolete as a common writing tool while, at the same time, it increased the need for people to read and write, so too technology is making pen-and-pencil calculations obsolete while, at the same time, increasing the need for people to model and solve complex problems. Thus the curriculum at all grade levels needs to include geometry and measurement, probability and statistics, pre-algebra or algebra, patterns, relations, functions, and discrete mathematics.

This suggested curricular reform is not as radical as it first appears. Many countries have used an integrated curriculum successfully for years, and teachers across the United States have already begun to develop instructional units based on problem situations that involve a variety of mathematical content areas and that may take two to five weeks to investigate.

Some teachers worry that teaching more and different types of mathematics will crowd the mathematics curriculum. Constructing one's own mathematical understanding and solving complex mathematical problems and applications are very time consuming. It may not be possible to cover the same ground using this approach as one would using the lecture method. Yet research indicates that the mathematical understanding students construct themselves is deep and enduring--that students taught this way can score as well as their peers on low-level mathematics skill items and better on problem-solving and conceptual items. Orchestrating the major mathematical concepts that students should understand and eliminating from deep coverage those items of less importance are difficult new roles for teachers.


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[Students learn mathematics best when they construct their own mathematical understanding.] [Table of Contents] [Mathematical discussion should be a daily part of classroom activity.]