article thumbnail

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 323
article thumbnail

The Math Revolution You Haven’t Heard About

ED Surge

Math professor Martin Weissman is rethinking how his university teaches calculus. Some educators place a share of the blame on calculus courses, which can push out otherwise interested students. Meanwhile, the calculus instruction has to be slowed down enough that it’s not as effective for math people as it could be. “I

Calculus 363
educators

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Are Students’ Math Futures Being Unwittingly Set By Tracking?

ED Surge

Which students get to attempt intellectually stimulating courses like calculus may rely in part on where they attend high school rather than just their aptitude for math, according to a new study. For example, lots of principals say that their school offers algebra, a critical juncture in the race to calculus. That can work out.

Math 326
article thumbnail

Talented Students Are Kept From Early Algebra. Should States Force Schools to Enroll Them?

ED Surge

That left the family to decide whether to make him repeat the class in ninth grade — and potentially disadvantage him by preventing him from taking calculus later in high school — or to have him push through. When he later won an achievement award in math, Lynem determined that the decision had been a good one.

Algebra 333
article thumbnail

Revisiting the Legacy of San Francisco’s Detracking Experiment

ED Surge

Thats in part because algebra is considered a critical point in the race to calculus. They contend the district eliminated tracking in middle and high school without seriously harming enrollments in AP Calculus, based on the data three years after implementation from the Stanford study. Nevertheless, the attempt was tense.

Algebra 229
article thumbnail

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 280