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From: brs@cci632.cci.com (Brian Scherer)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Subtle Math Questions
Message-ID: <1991May3.200312.10109@cci632.cci.com>
Date: 3 May 91 20:03:12 GMT
References: <2731@ttardis.UUCP> <1991Apr24.142835.26475@mccc.edu> <10060@plains.NoDak.edu>
Reply-To: brs@op632.UUCP (Brian Scherer)
Organization: CCI, Communications Systems Division, Rochester, NY
Lines: 47

In article <10060@plains.NoDak.edu> kurtze@plains.NoDak.edu (Douglas Kurtze) writes:
>In article <1991Apr24.142835.26475@mccc.edu> pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) writes
>
>>I think you'll find that the majority of primary and secondary school
>>math teachers do not get their math education from a college's math
>>department in "regular" math courses but either from a regular college's
>>math department's special math courses for wannabes, OR from the math
>>departments of teachers colleges!!  :-(  In either case, the students
>>are not expected to learn much math at all.  (My ex-wife is now a HS
>>math teacher and her education matches the "ed major" model implied above.)
>
>This is a strong argument for mathematicians to get involved in research on how
>students (at whatever level) learn mathematics, how to present concepts, what
>misconceptions exist, etc.  The results could then feed into the courses for
>wannabes, who could then learn the mathematics they need AND how to teach it.
>The latter would, of course, require that they understand thoroughly the
>material they are about to teach.  It's unlikely that they will get that in an
>education course, without deep involvement of mathematicians.
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Doug Kurtze                   kurtze@plains.NoDak.edu
>Physics, North Dakota State
>
>"Patience is its own reward" -- Flann O'Brien
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wish to disagree on the point that math teachers do not learn much.
I went to a college that was a teachers college and a science college.
The only difference between the major in Math and the major in Math
education was areas outside of the math department. Like english etc.
The math ed people had to take courses in lesson preperation, 
and the sych(sp) courses. The math courses were geared to the science
arena and you had to have a B or better in them.

I would like to make a comment about the so-called teachers that
teach at a college. Do you know that most never have to take any
educational courses to be able to teach? Many do not know how
to write lesson plans, have good examples (worked out ahead of time), 
and really know how to present the material to the students. 

As an ex-secondary math teacher, who still teaches on the side, not only
in the math arena, but in the computers (micro) and also for the bouy scouts
I would guess that the whole area of education needs to be looked
at and re-done.


Brian Scherer