Everybody Counts A Report to the Nation on the Future of Mathematics Education (1989) / Chapter Skim
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CHANGE
CHANGE
Pages 73-86
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From page 73... ...
Change is a natural state for education, not just a transition between old and new To ensure continuous responsiveness in the future, mathematics education must adopt structures that will make change permanent; mathematics education must always respond to changes in science, in society, and in mathematics itself. Challenges Mathematics education in the United States is facing major challenges on nearly every front: · Far too many students, disproportionately minority, leave school without having acquired the mathematical power necessary for productive lives.
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From page 74... ...
Public attitudes, which are reflected and magnified by the entertainment industry, encourage low expectations in mathematics. Only in mathematics is poor school performance socially acceptable.
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From page 75... ...
It will not be easy to develop better understanding. Often, public discussion about mathematics education masks Myth: Increased requirements yield better prepared students.
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From page 76... ...
Mathematics appears to many to be a safe harbor of calm in a turbulent sea of social and educational change. Proposals to change mathematics education appear to threaten time-honored values that are deeply embedded in the public image of mathematics.
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From page 77... ...
Every summer, thousands of teachers work in small teams for periods ranging from one week to two months, charged by their school districts to write new mathematics curricula. These teacher teams usually have little training in the complicated process of curricular development, little or no help in coping with changing needs, and little to fall back on except existing textbooks, familiar programs, and tradition.
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From page 78... ...
Modern Mathematics Curricular reforms undertaken in the two decades from 1955 to 1975 under the slogans of "modern mathematics" or "new math" left a mixed legacy to American mathematics education. The movement sprang from many roots and took on many different (and sometimes opposing)
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From page 79... ...
Lessons from the Past The history of the past twenty-five years of curricular reform gives us only negative examples from which to learn. Few traces remain of the expensive major curricular development projects so prominent in the 1960's and 1970's.
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From page 80... ...
The time is ripe for a new approach to curricular reform, one that establishes appropriate national expectations supported by broad public support among parents, teachers, and taxpayers.
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From page 81... ...
Accomplishing this will pose significant challenges to: · Develop a core of mathematics appropriate for all students throughout each year of school; · Educate well a significantly larger fraction of the population; . Stimulate able students with the excitement and challenge of mathematics; · Differentiate instruction by approach and speed, not by curricular goals; · Select topics and approaches of broad interest and effectiveness.
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From page 82... ...
Although the burden of unfavorable school experiences continues to color public opinion about mathematics, contemporary events are sending different messages which are gradually being heard: · In other nations where more is expected, more mathematics is learned; · As the role of science and technology expands, so does the importance of mathematics; · To function as an informed citizen, numerary is as important as literacy. As attitudes about the importance of mathematics improve, so will expectations for mathematics education.
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From page 83... ...
Most mathematics should be presented in the context of its uses, with appreciation of mathematics as a deductive logical system built up slowly through the rising levels of education. Examples of areas deserving greater emphasis are: Probability, which facilitates reasoning about uncertainty and assessment of risk; · Exploratory data analysis and statistics, which facilitate reasoning about data; Model-building, which facilitates systematic, structured understanding of complex situations; · Operations research, which facilitates planning of complex tasks and achieving performance objectives; · Discrete mathematics, which facilitates understanding of most applications of computers.
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From page 84... ...
Calculators and computers make new modes of instruction feasible at the same time that they inject into the learning environment a special sense of wonder which goes with healthy development of mathematical power. Calculators and computers should be used in ways that anticipate continuing rapid change due to technological developments.
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