[Maths-Education] Curriculum materials for Mathematical Literacy
Jeanne Albert
maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk
Mon, 18 Oct 2004 06:47:07 +0200
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--Boundary_(ID_OV/1hbfSqpZgCkyLDHveDA)
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Curriculum materials for Mathematical LiteracyIf you would like to be kept in touch with the results of this search, let me know
I would like to. Thanks, Jeanne Albert
----- Original Message -----
From: Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk
To: maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 10:50 PM
Subject: [Maths-Education] Curriculum materials for Mathematical Literacy
Folks
There is currently a lot of interest in developing mathematical literacy. Whatever meaning you choose for the phrase, helping mathematics teachers to develop it in their students (and themselves) presents a non-trivial challenge.
We at the Shell Centre are looking for examples of good curriculum materials that may reasonably be said to focus on mathematical literacy, in terms both of mathematical content and of the process of applying it to everyday problems that the student has not previously analysed with mathematics.
As you may know, we have long been concerned with the 'how' of supporting changes in mathematical education. (So much discussion is on the 'what', usually implying the 'how' will somehow happen) We have found that most teachers, when faced with new classroom learning goals, value well-engineered tools that have helped others like them tackle the specific challenge effectively.
What is mathematical literacy? In analogy with literacy, we suggest the following test:
Will a well-educated adult find this element of their mathematical education has
helped them understand better, and solve non-specialist problems in, the world
of things, people and the relationships amongst them?
We are looking for materials that pass this test**.
Names, publishers, URLs etc will be sufficient, though copies (hard or electronic) will be appreciated. If you know of such materials (particularly those you admire, even if you developed them!), please email me at Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk.
If you would like to be kept in touch with the results of this search, let me know
Many thanks
Hugh Burkhardt
** We developed five Numeracy through Problem Solving modules in the 1980s that were designed to do so. Numeracy was used in the original, Crowther Report, sense of "the mathematical equivalent of literacy" .
The goal of literacy is not the study of language -- grammar, syntax, and linguistics -- so please do not suggest units, however excellent, that are just about mathematics, with potential for application; we have plenty of those.
--Boundary_(ID_OV/1hbfSqpZgCkyLDHveDA)
Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Curriculum materials for Mathematical Literacy</TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<STYLE type=text/css>BLOCKQUOTE {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
DL {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
UL {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
OL {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
LI {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
</STYLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=3>If you would like to be kept in touch with the
results of this search, let me know</FONT><BR>I would like to.
Thanks, Jeanne Albert</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk
href="mailto:Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk">Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk
href="mailto:maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk">maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, October 17, 2004 10:50
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Maths-Education] Curriculum
materials for Mathematical Literacy</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>Folks</FONT><BR><FONT face=Palatino
color=#000000 size=-1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>There is currently a lot of interest in
developing<I> mathematical literacy</I>. Whatever meaning you choose for
the phrase, helping mathematics teachers to develop it in their students (and
themselves) presents a non-trivial challenge.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>We at the Shell Centre are
looking for<B> examples of good curriculum materials</B> that may reasonably
be said to focus<B> on mathematical literacy</B>, in terms both of
mathematical content and of the process of applying it to everyday problems
that the student has not previously analysed with mathematics.</FONT><BR><FONT
face=Palatino color=#000000></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>As you may know, we have long been
concerned with the 'how' of supporting changes in mathematical
education. (So much discussion is on the 'what', usually implying the
'how' will somehow happen) We have found that most teachers, when faced
with new classroom learning goals, value well-engineered tools that have
helped others like them tackle the specific challenge
effectively.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>What is mathematical
literacy? In analogy with literacy, we suggest the following
test:<BR><X-TAB> </X-TAB><I>Will a
well-educated adult find this element of their mathematical education
has</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino
color=#000000><I><X-TAB>
</X-TAB>helped them understand better, and solve<B> non-specialis</B>t
problems in, the world</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino
color=#000000><I><X-TAB> </X-TAB>of
things, people and the relationships amongst them?</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>We are looking for materials that pass
this test**. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000><BR>Names, publishers, URLs etc will be
sufficient, though copies (hard or electronic) will be appreciated. If
you know of such materials (particularly those you admire, even if you
developed them!), please email me at
Hugh.Burkhardt@nottingham.ac.uk.<BR><BR>If you would like to be kept in touch
with the results of this search, let me know<BR><BR>Many thanks<BR><BR>Hugh
Burkhardt<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000>** We developed five<I> Numeracy
through Problem Solving</I> modules in the 1980s that were designed to do
so. Numeracy was used in the original, Crowther Report, sense of "the
mathematical equivalent of literacy" . </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Palatino color=#000000><BR>The goal of literacy is not the
study of language -- grammar, syntax, and linguistics -- so please do not
suggest units, however excellent, that are just about mathematics, with<I>
potential</I> for application; we have plenty of
those.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
--Boundary_(ID_OV/1hbfSqpZgCkyLDHveDA)--