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Evidence Is Mounting That Calculus Should Be Changed. Will Instructors Heed It?

ED Surge

Calculus is a critical on-ramp to careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Good news: There's mounting evidence that changing calculus instruction works for the groups usually pushed out of STEM. That the traditional lecture method of teaching calculus isn’t as effective as active models.

Calculus 314
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The Math Revolution You Haven’t Heard About

ED Surge

Math professor Martin Weissman is rethinking how his university teaches calculus. Called Math 11 A and B, these classes, which students take as freshmen and sophomores, constitute a “leaky pipeline,” Weissman says. Some educators place a share of the blame on calculus courses, which can push out otherwise interested students.

Math 363
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Are Students’ Math Futures Being Unwittingly Set By Tracking?

ED Surge

Before then, Holmes had always earned good grades in math — mostly As — and when he found out his friends were in honors math, he felt he belonged there too. And so he approached his guidance counselor and asked why he wasn’t in the honors math class. “Oh, Oh, do you want to try?,” Holmes recalls the adviser replying.

Math 312
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In College Math, Faculty Is Key. But Will This Insight Actually Help Students?

ED Surge

A number of instructors in the math department at San Diego Mesa College, where she's a professor, had started exploring how to weave standards-based grading — an approach that evaluates students on how effectively they have mastered content — into the way they teach calculus.

Math 273
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Why Some Students Feel Like They Can’t Excel In Math

ED Surge

Sabrina Colon, a first-year student at University of California, Merced, remembers when math first became a problem. She says she’s not a math person, but she was able to pass her high school math classes without too much trouble, earning Cs. But in college, where she’s a business major, calculus is proving insurmountable.

Math 339
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The Role of Mathematics in Education

Ask a Tech Teacher

Or perhaps, amidst a particularly challenging calculus problem, you’ve questioned how this abstract world of numbers and symbols could possibly influence your future career? College and Mathematics: Challenges The Complexity Cliff Remember the first time you looked at a calculus problem in college? Well, you’re not alone.

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Math Instruction Isn’t Working. Could Better Teacher Training Help?

ED Surge

But Barclay — a former Virginia math educator of the year — thought back to his own experience with a discouraging middle school teacher and decided to think through what the student was saying rather than dismiss it. Or even newer math ?) So I’ve been wondering: What do we know about the science behind good math education?

Math 324