Category Archives: Classroom Practices

Let Your Students Do Some Grading? Using Peer Assessment to Help Students Understand Key Concepts

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Elise Lockwood

By Elise Lockwood, Contributing Editor, Oregon State University On many occasions when I grade my students’ proofs, or when I read their solution to a particularly interesting problem, I am surprised by something I read. Sometimes I am surprised because … Continue reading →

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(Don’t?) Make ’em Laugh

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Art Duval

By Art Duval, Contributing Editor, University of Texas at El Paso When I started teaching, I wanted to be the very best teacher.  Not just “the best teacher I could be”, but the very best teacher, the one students would tell … Continue reading →

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Number Theory and Cryptography: A Distance Learning Course for High School Students

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Ben Braun

By Matt Baker, Professor of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology Last year, I began offering an online Number Theory and Cryptography course for gifted high school students through Georgia Tech.  Fourteen high school seniors from metro Atlanta took the course in Fall … Continue reading →

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Attending to Precision: A Need for Characterizing and Promoting Careful Mathematical Work

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Elise Lockwood

By Elise Lockwood, Contributing Editor, Oregon State University My research focus is on undergraduate students’ solving of counting problems, and I have worked toward better understanding students’ combinatorial thinking. Counting problems provide excellent opportunities for students to engage in meaningful … Continue reading →

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The First Year of “On Teaching and Learning Mathematics”

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Ben Braun

By Benjamin Braun, Editor-in-Chief, University of Kentucky It has been one year since On Teaching and Learning Mathematics launched, so it seems an appropriate time for reflection.  As I re-read the 36 articles we have published over the past twelve … Continue reading →

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In Math as in Dance, Don’t Miss a Step, or Else You May Fall

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Art Duval

By A.K. Whitney, journalist.  In 2009, Whitney went back to school to find out, once and for all, if journalists really are as bad at math as they fear they are; her blog about the experience, Mathochism, runs on Medium … Continue reading →

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Famous Unsolved Math Problems as Homework

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Ben Braun

By Benjamin Braun, Editor-in-Chief, University of Kentucky One of my favorite assignments for students in undergraduate mathematics courses is to have them work on unsolved math problems.  An unsolved math problem, also known to mathematicians as an “open” problem, is … Continue reading →

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Taming the Coverage Beast

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Priscilla Bremser

By Priscilla Bremser, Contributing Editor, Middlebury College By the end of every workshop and conference session on Inquiry-Based Learning that I’ve attended, someone has raised a hand to ask about coverage. “Don’t you have to sacrifice coverage if you teach … Continue reading →

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Inquiry-Oriented Instruction: What It Is and How We Are Trying to Help

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Elise Lockwood

By Estrella Johnson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Virginia Tech University, Karen Keene, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at North Carolina State University, and Christy Andrews-Larson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Florida State University Making fundamental changes to … Continue reading →

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One Reason Fractions (and Many Other Topics) Are Hard: Equivalence Relations Up and Down the Mathematics Curriculum

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Art Duval

By Art Duval, Contributing Editor, University of Texas at El Paso  Why are fractions hard to learn for so many people?  There are many reasons for this, but I like to think about one in particular, a mathematical idea hiding in … Continue reading →

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