Mathematics Education Is at a Major Turning Point



 

Explanation of This Page
Mathematics Education Is at a Major Turning Point is a paper presented by David Moursund at an November 7-9, 2014 math education conference. The conference is the Third International Conference sponsored by The Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (CSMC) in Chicago, Illinois.

Click here for the visual aids for many of the presentation (including my presentation).

Each presenter has written a paper for inclusion in a Proceedings that will be commercially published late in 2015.

This IAE-pedia page contains a brief introduction to the talk, all of the References and Resources, and some other inline, "hot link" references used in the paper. The paper draws heavily from:


 * Moursund, D. (2014). Math maturity. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Math_Maturity.


 * Moursund, D. (2014). Two brains are better than one. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Two_Brains_Are_Better_Than_One.


 * Moursund, D. (September, 2014). Education for students' futures: Part 14 and Part 15—The future of teaching machines. Information Age Education Newsletter. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://i-a-e.org/newsletters/IAE-Newsletter-2014-146.html and http://i-a-e.org/newsletters/IAE-Newsletter-2014-146.html.

Probably the most important idea covered in my talk is an exploration of the two questions:

1. If a computer can solve and/or greatly help in solving a type of problem that students are now being how to solve using "traditional" (by hand) methods, what should we now be teaching students about this type of problem?

2. If a computerized teaching machine can teach a significant part of a math unit of study or course better than an "average" human classroom teacher who is dealing with 25 or more students, what roles should such teaching machines play in math teaching and learning of this unit or course of study?

In both cases we are talking about computers whose costs (including connectivity) are "reasonably" and that will also be used in many other curricular (and non-curricular) areas.

Brief Introduction to Moursund's Presentation

 * "If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don't bother trying to teach them. Instead give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking." (Richard Buckminster Fuller; American engineer, author, designer, inventor, and futurist; 1895-1983.)


 * “Don't worry about what anybody else is going to do…. The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Really smart people with reasonable funding can do just about anything that doesn't violate too many of Newton's Laws.” (Alan Kay; American computer scientist; 1940-.)

I like to make use of brief quotes in my educational writings. The quotations from Buckminster Fuller and Alan Kay capture the essence of this paper about possible futures of math education. My goal is to help invent a better math education system.

We now have artificially intelligent computer brains, and these are steadily growing in capability. We know that human brains and computer brains working together can accomplish a wider variety of problem-solving tasks than either working alone. This idea that the educational use of the two brains, human and computer, is better than using only one or the other alone underlies much of my teaching and writing (Moursund, 2014a, 2014e, and 2012).

We are applying this two-brain capacity to improving our educational system. What is coming out of this work are changes in how we teach and learn, and also changes in what humans need to learn. The two-brain approach is steadily being improved to help people represent and solve math-related problems, to learn math, and to teach math. While this paper deals primarily with math education, its basic ideas apply to education in all disciplines of study and research.

I hope some of my future-oriented ideas presented in this paper will resonate with yours, and that together we will succeed in improving our world’s math education systems.

References and Resources
Anderson, N. (9/23/2014). MIT study finds learning gains for students who took free online course. The Washington Post. Retrieved 10/9/2014 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/mit-report-finds-learning-gains-for-students-who-took-free-online-course/2014/09/23/7ceb34e6-4330-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html.

Bransford, J., Brown, A, & Cocking, R., eds. (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy.

Card, O.S. (1985). Ender’s game. NY: TOR.

CCSSM (2014). Common core state standards initiative: Standards for mathematical practice. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice/.

Kuchment, A. (10/21/2013). Teenager creates new flu drugs. Scientific American. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/WSS/post.php?blog=11&post=1445.

Moursund, D. (2014a). Brain science. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae- pedia.org/Brain_Science.

Moursund, D. (2014b). Improving mathematics education. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Improving_Math_Education.

Moursund, D. (2014c). Math maturity. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Math_Maturity.

Moursund, D. (2014d). Problem solving. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Problem_Solving

Moursund, D. (2014e). Two brains are better than one. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Two_Brains_Are_Better_Than_One.

Moursund, D. (September, 2014). Education for students' futures: Part 14 and Part 15—The future of teaching machines. Information Age Education Newsletter. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://i-a-e.org/newsletters/IAE-Newsletter-2014-146.html and http://i-a-e.org/newsletters/IAE-Newsletter-2014-146.html.

Moursund,D. (2013). Alan Key. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Alan_Kay.

Moursund, D. (2012). Using brain/mind science and computers to improve elementary school math education. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/232-using-brain-mind-science-and-computers-to-improve-elementary-school-math-education.html.

Moursund, D. (1989). Three 1987 math education scenarios. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/20/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Three_1987_Math_Education_Scenarios.

PACT Center (n.d.). Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor Center@Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 10/15/2014 from http://pact.cs.cmu.edu/index.html.

Russell, T.L. (2014). The no significant difference phenomenon. WCET. Retrieved 10/22/2014 from http://www.nosignificantdifference.org/search.asp.

Smith, F. (10/10/2014). Watson could power ‘tech that teaches teachers.’ EdTech. Retrieved 10/15/2014 from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2014/10/watson-could-power-tech-teaches-teachers.

Sylwester, R., & Moursund, D., eds. (2012). Creating an appropriate 21st century education. Eugene, OR: Information Age Education. Retrieved 10/20 2014 from http://i-a-e.org/downloads/doc_download/243-creating-an-appropriate-21st-century-education.html.

VLE (2014). History of virtual learning environments. Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/15/2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments.

Young, M., et al. (2012). Our princess is in another castle: A review of trends in serious gaming for education. Review of Educational Research. I retrieved the PDF file 10/17/2014 by pasting the following Web address into my Firefox browser. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jenjenson.com%2Fcourses%2Flearninggame%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F08%2Fprincessreviewseriousgames.pdf&ei=U6dBVO4Mx9-gBPvlgqgE&usg=AFQjCNEhHTv4Dje8Mw5inqeOMIjc0OA9uQ&sig2=aQzmzagMzsoeA0Z4BSeVSA&bvm=bv.77880786,d.cGU.

Additional Resources Used in the Paper
Each of these was a inline "hot link" in the paper.

Big Data (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved 01/27/2014 from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data.

IBM (n.d.). IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://www.research.ibm.com/labs/watson/.

IJSG (2014). International Journal of Serious Games. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://journal.seriousgamessociety.org/index.php?journal=IJSG

MOOCs (2/27/2012).). Supersized Courses (MOOCs). IAE Blog. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://i-a-e.org/iae-blog/entry/supersized-online-courses-moocs.html.

Moursund, D. (2013) Alan Kay. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from  http://iae-pedia.org/Alan_Kay

Moursund, D. (2013) Two Brains Are Better Than One IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Two_Brains_Are_Better_Than_One.

Moursund, D. (2013). Computational Thinking. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Computational_ThinkingIAE-pedia.

Moursund, D. (2013). Free Math Software. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Free_Math_Software#Computer_Algebra_Systems.

Moursund, D. (2014). Math Education Quotations, IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Math_Education_Quotations

Moursund, D. (2014). Self-Assessment. IAE-pedia. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://iae-pedia.org/Self_Assessment.

NORAD (n.d.). North American Aerospace Defense Command. Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Aerospace_Defense_Command.

Wolfram Alpha. (n.d.). Retrieved 10/27/2014 from http://www.wolframalpha.com/.

Author
This page was developed by David Moursund.

Category; Math Education