{"id":1125,"date":"2016-01-12T20:26:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T01:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/matheducation\/?p=1125"},"modified":"2016-01-12T20:26:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T01:26:27","slug":"from-the-editors-blog-update-and-2016-joint-meetings-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ams.org\/matheducation\/2016\/01\/12\/from-the-editors-blog-update-and-2016-joint-meetings-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Editors: Blog Update and 2016 Joint Meetings Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

by <\/span><\/i>the Editorial Board<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

We want to begin this post with thanks to all of our readers and contributors — we appreciate your feedback and ideas through your writing, social media comments, and in-person conversations at mathematical meetings and events. In-person conversations have been on the minds of the editors recently because we had our first-ever in-person meeting as an editorial board at the <\/span>2016 Joint Meetings<\/span><\/a> in Seattle. \u00a0This was great fun and gave us a chance to seriously reflect on our blog, its role in the mathematical community, and what we want to do over the next year or two. \u00a0In this post, we give a brief update about a change to the structure of our blog, followed by some highlights of our experiences attending the joint meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Update<\/b><\/p>\n

As regular readers of our blog know, since we began in June 2014 we have been publishing articles on or around the 1st, 10th, and 20th of each month. \u00a0Starting with this post, we will be changing to a bi-weekly publication schedule. \u00a0Starting on Monday, January 25th, new articles will appear every two weeks. \u00a0If you want to receive notice when new blog posts appear, please subscribe to our email distribution list on the right-hand sidebar of the blog or subscribe to our RSS feed.<\/span><\/p>\n

JMM Highlights<\/b><\/p>\n

With so many excellent activities going on at the Joint Meetings, even with five of us we could only attend a small fraction of the offerings. \u00a0Given that, here are some of the highlights from our experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Diana:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It amazes me how much my focus at conferences has gradually shifted over time as I have progressed through the academic ranks. \u00a0As a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, I almost exclusively attended talks and chit-chatted with colleagues and friends during breaks. \u00a0Now, with many projects in progress with folks from around the country, and with several leadership roles, I feel lucky if I can choose one talk per day to attend! \u00a0\u00a0I spend most of my time in meetings, but I enjoy this greatly. \u00a0I find it wonderful to connect in person with colleagues on various projects and committees, work and connect intensely for a bit, and then resume working remotely. \u00a0How wonderful this combination of modern technology and in person meeting can be when used well!<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my main foci at the Joint Math Meetings was in my capacity as Director of the <\/span>National Association of Math Circles<\/span><\/a> (NAMC), one of the main outreach activities of the <\/span>Mathematical Sciences Research Institute<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s great to see Math Circles growing and becoming more well-known across the country. \u00a0I strongly encourage you to become involved with an existing one, or to start a new one. \u00a0At the NAMC happy hour, it was particularly wonderful to meet <\/span>Po-Shen Loh<\/span><\/a>, coach of the U.S. International Math Olympiad team that won the Gold Medal in 2015. \u00a0I\u2019m particularly excited about his new <\/span>Expii website<\/span><\/a> that is posting a wonderful <\/span>weekly problem set<\/span><\/a> to engage kids of all backgrounds and experiences with mathematics. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another major focus for my time at the JMM consisted of events surrounding the development of the <\/span>Mathematical Association of America<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Instructional Practices Guide. I\u2019m honored and excited to be a part of developing this as an accompaniment to the decadal <\/span>MAA Curriculum Guide<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0At the JMM, we conducted focus groups, held meetings of the steering committee and advisory board, hosted a panel, and had several leadership team meetings. \u00a0The 2-3 year project is off to a great start!<\/span><\/p>\n

Art:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The entire <\/span>AMS Special Session on Essential Mathematical Structures and Practices in K–12 Mathematics<\/span><\/i><\/a> featured mathematicians and mathematics educators talking with (not at!) each other about treating the mathematical topics that arise in K-12 with the rigor that they deserve. \u00a0Expect a post about this soon, focusing on ratio and proportion as an illustrative example, from some of the speakers. The panelists at the AMS & AWM Committees on Education Panel Discussion <\/span>Work in Mathematics Education in Departments of Mathematical Sciences <\/span><\/i>showed the different ways that mathematicians can be involved in mathematics education. \u00a0Yvonne Lai presented research she and her collaborators conducted on the mathematical knowledge for teaching at the high school level, and they will also be contributing a post here in the future. \u00a0I also learned more about <\/span>Illustrative Mathematics<\/span><\/a>, a community of educators collecting quality classroom resources that encourage mathematical understanding; their materials are easy to browse at their website.<\/span><\/p>\n

Priscilla:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The first JMM stop for me was a panel discussion on \u201cCreating a meaningful Calculus I experience for students entering with high school calculus.\u201d David Bressoud (Macalester) suggested that such students \u201cdon\u2019t need a course of techniques — they need big ideas,\u201d and presented <\/span>an outline of his department\u2019s course<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0He also recommended Michael Oerhtman\u2019s <\/span>Clear Calculus<\/span><\/a> materials for a laboratory approach. \u00a0Robin Pemantle (UPenn) described students\u2019 backgrounds as \u201cporous,\u201d so that he and his colleagues offer a course which is \u2153 filling in holes in calculus, algebra, and even arithmetic, \u2153 topics (probability densities, differential equations) suggested by faculty in client departments, and \u2153 \u00a0multivariable calculus. \u00a0Uri Treisman encouraged us to accept the fact that \u201cit\u2019s in the culture that you\u2019re supposed to repeat calculus\u201d after taking it in high school. \u00a0His response is to offer an introduction to university mathematics, rather than simply an introduction to calculus; he wants to \u201cstartle students\u201d with the power of the subject and to emphasize proof and precision. \u00a0\u201cDon\u2019t make high school calculus the enemy,\u201d Treisman insists; instead we should \u201cwork collaboratively with the high school teacher community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The premiere showing of <\/span>\u201cNavajo Math Circles\u201d<\/span><\/a> was a treat. \u00a0I\u2019ve bought a copy for my department so that we can show it on campus. \u00a0The <\/span>\u201cextra features\u201d<\/span><\/a> page has some fascinating short videos that go beyond the film content. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elise:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A highlight for me was a talk by Chris Rasmussen about teaching called \u201cAdvances in inquiry-oriented instruction at the post-secondary level: Student success and instructor practices.\u201d This was in Alan Schoenfeld\u2019s <\/span>MAA Invited Paper Session on What Do We Know about University Mathematics Teaching, and How Can It Help Us? (which provided a number of insightful and thought-provoking talks).<\/span> In his talk, Chris highlighted a few papers and projects that demonstrate the progress that is being made at the post-secondary level. <\/span>It was exciting to see that there are quite a few new advances, and he cited some recent and upcoming papers that speak to this issue. I appreciate that there are opportunities for productive discussions about instruction at the post-secondary level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I had two highlights from the 2016 JMM. First, I greatly enjoyed giving two talks about teaching, one as part of a Project NExT panel on broadening assessment in postsecondary education and another on the topic of growth mindset interventions to support IBL pedagogies in the MAA contributed paper session on inquiry-based learning. It was rewarding to have excellent questions and interactions with audience members, both in person and through email, following my talks. Second, I attended Alan Schoenfeld\u2019s talk about improving K-16 mathematics, in which he described the <\/span>Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) Math<\/span><\/i> framework<\/span><\/a>. The five dimensions of this framework strongly resonated with me, and I encourage all of our readers to visit the TRU Math website for more information. One of the comments that Schoenfeld made stuck with me: at this point in mathematics education research, we know what to do to teach right, and it is hard work to implement our knowledge. This led me to reflect on my belief that half of our challenge at the postsecondary level is to broaden awareness and understanding about what constitutes powerful mathematics classrooms — it is impossible to implement change for the better if we don\u2019t recognize and value the complexities of our classrooms and our students\u2019 learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

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by the Editorial Board We want to begin this post with thanks to all of our readers and contributors — we appreciate your feedback and ideas through your writing, social media comments, and in-person conversations at mathematical meetings and events. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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