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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 304
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Are Students’ Math Futures Being Unwittingly Set By Tracking?

ED Surge

Reflecting on his more recent experience as a policy analyst for RAND Corporation, a public policy research organization, Holmes doesn’t think it makes much sense that he had to hunt down the chance to try more difficult math. For example, lots of principals say that their school offers algebra, a critical juncture in the race to calculus.

Math 291
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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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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. So far, Spoon reports that the changes are invigorating.

Math 268
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If We’re Serious About Student Well-Being, We Must Change the Systems Students Learn In

ED Surge

But while working with schools and colleges across the globe as we conducted research for our book , we realized that most interventions don’t address systemic issues causing mental health problems in the first place. Indeed, a meta-analysis of research on this issue found a correlation between homework and achievement.

Learning 297
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Why Some Students Feel Like They Can’t Excel In Math

ED Surge

But in college, where she’s a business major, calculus is proving insurmountable. There’s slightly more evidence that poor achievement more often fuels math anxiety than the other way around, though there’s evidence going both ways, she adds. In the classroom, researchers don’t know much about what works for anxiety, Ganley says.

Math 330
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Math Instruction Isn’t Working. Could Better Teacher Training Help?

ED Surge

Although it’s not as obviously contentious as say, social studies, educators and researchers (not to mention students and families) have strong feelings about math instruction (remember New Math ? Poor teacher support and inadequate training, researchers suggest, may be contributing. Or even newer math ?) isn’t working.

Math 306