The Mathematical Sciences: A Report (1968) / Chapter Skim
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9 Special Educational Issues
9 Special Educational Issues
Pages 147-160
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From page 147... ...
It is also anticipated that it may not be possible to sustain the closely correlated support of basic research in the core areas at more than this level (see discussion of The Core on page 197~. Much could be done to alleviate the shortage of qualified college faculty in the mathematical sciences if, for the five-year period ending in 1971, an annual rate of increase of PhD production near 18 percent instead of near 10 percent could be maintained.
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From page 148... ...
College enrollment in precalculus courses grew at a much lower rate, calculus enrollment grew at a substantially higher rate, but the enrollments in linear algebra, probability and statistics, and computer-related mathematics grew at a rate spectacularly greater than did undergraduate enrollments as a whole. In many colleges the availability of suitable courses, or even any courses, in these subjects for undergraduate students is very low, quite apart from the quality of the instruction.
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From page 149... ...
of other pressing problems of the college teacher: geographic and intellectual isolation from the mainstream of mathematical activities, the need for new curricula and new teaching methods, the multiplicity of demands on the college teacher's time, and the difficult working conditions and inadequate facilities with which he often has to cope. APPLIED MATHEMATICS The specialproblems of education in applied mathematics were the subject of an extensive recent conference sponsored by the Society for Industria, and Applied Mathematics.
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From page 150... ...
On the other hand, another applied mathematician wrote: Good students are attracted by great teachers. The trouble with applied mathematics education in this country is the paucity of applied mathematicians in universities who deserve the admiration of the best students and who are able to articulate the intellectual excitement of Heir subject.
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From page 151... ...
and many American applied mathematicians were originally trained as engineers or physicists. This Committee believes that one could not and should not prescribe a method for educating applied mathematicians to be used in all or most colleges and universities.
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From page 152... ...
Although each university should certainly organize itself to best serve its own goals and constituency, it appears to us that the autonomy of a separate department offers one reasonable way to permit computer science to develop as it must. A position dominated by another science or by a branch of engineering may provide too many
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From page 153... ...
Computer scientists are typically interested in trying to help others use computing in their research, both through direct consultation and through leadership and technical advice to the university computation center. The supply of leaders in computer science is critically low.
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From page 154... ...
Another need is a sufficient budget for the computer time used in education; satisfactory methods of government support have not yet been worked out. Often, government accounting procedures prevent students from using university computers that are standing idle.
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From page 155... ...
Such experiments cannot be tolerated on a computing machine dedicated to continuous reliable campus-wide service, because of the probability of interrupting the service. Hence, in addition to the 51,000 of computing time estimated above, advanced students specializing in systems programming will require access to a substantial computer separate from the central campus computer utility, so that systems experiments can be safely encouraged.
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From page 156... ...
We believe they should be sufficiently closely related to exert desirable influences on each other, and yet their distinct functions of research and education on the one hand, and university service on the other, require clearly separated administrative settings. In today's tight fiscal situation it is extremely hard to add a burgeoning new field to an already overcrowded and overcommitted university.
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From page 157... ...
Introducing mathematics students to statistics, taught so as to communicate its extramathematical aspects, while using mathematics freely where appropriate, can help much more. Even this does not meet the needs of the many students who might find research in statistics attractive but who happen to be repelled by the attitudes conveyed in courses of a conventional mathematics major.
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From page 158... ...
While it is difficult to obtain objective evidence of this, we have made an effort to ascertain whether and to what degree the leading research mathematicians are, in fact, removed from teaching in general and from undergraduate teaching in particular. At the Committee's request, the American Mathematical Society has identified about 300 distinguished American mathematicians to whom a short questionnaire concerning their teaching duties was sent.
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From page 159... ...
Thus, there is considerably more teaching by such scientists than is indicated by numbers of classroom teaching hours. WASTED MATHEMATICAL TALENT We believe that a large number of mathematically gifted young men and women with potential to become productive mathematical scientists and college mathematics teachers fail to do so for socially determined reasons.
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From page 160... ...
160 The Mathematical Sciences in Education Chapter 5 of their report, that at present our society is not utilizing fully the intellectual capacity of women. Social attitudes, family responsibilities, and out-dated nepotism rules prevent many talented young women from beginning or continuing graduate study and from continuing professional work after having received a PhD degree.
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