[Maths-Education] maths across the curriculum

[Hugh.Burkhardt at nottingham.ac.uk]

In the 1980s the Shell Centre (with the JMB) developed five modules 
on functional mathematics, calling them Numeracy through Problem 
Solving.  Malcolm Swan was the lead designer. One of them, Design a 
Board Game, was taught on at least one occasion jointly by the Maths 
and Art departments of a school.  All five have cross curricular 
potential.   (see www.mathshell.com)

The 'USP' of the modules is that they  provide a lot of support for 
non-routine practical problem solving, so that they work well across 
the student ability range in the hands  of teachers with no prior 
experience of teaching real problem solving skills (most teachers of 
maths).  They were later adapted for GCSE as NEAB Mathematics 
Syllabus C, dying when syllabuses were restricted.

More generally, it would be interesting to hear about any 
cross-curricular teaching of non-routine problem solving where:
   *  the problems are seen by the students as meaningful in out-of-school terms
   *  the students have reasonable autonomy to pursue their own 
approaches to, at least,
	some of the problems
Of course, illustrating the uses of maths in finance, sport, music, 
art (from Vazarely to Peitgen) is fine but it is as important to 
functionality as always to move students out of passive 'gawp mode' 
into autonomous analysis.

Cross curricular teaching seems a hopeful approach in that it does 
not rely on teachers of other subjects knowing enough maths to bring 
power to their analyses (a weakness in the Smith proposal for 
'statistics across the curriculum').  But there are serious 
challenges:
   *  The student may be faced with reconciling the two teachers very 
different priorities, both of which may be different from those the 
student sees in the problem. ("dragging in maths,....")
   *  Many students don't understand other subjects well-enough 
informally to be able to model significant problems in them with 
mathematics (hence the use of everyday life situations)
   *  Cross-curricular teaching has often been seen as valuiable, but 
very rarely established in secondary schools, largely due to the 
practical difficulties of 'crossing' the different departments' 
thinking and priorities, and their structuring of curriculum and 
teaching.  (Primary schools are a different story, with other 
challenges)

Thus evidence from and on efforts to do this would be valuable..

Hugh


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>I have been tangentially involved with a mathemataics department instigating
>maths (rather than 'numeracy') across the curriculum in a large, split-site
>secondary school in London. They've done some co-teaching projects with
>colleagues from the geography, IT and drama departments. The maths teacher
>who has been running the project asked me if I knew of anything written
>about such work - particulalry evaluating its effects - or if I knew other
>schools trying similar things.
>I've pretty much drawn a blank - can any of you make some suggestions? I
>think they might be quite interested in linking with another school doing
>similar work.
>Many thanks
>Tamara
>
>
>Dr Tamara Bibby
>School of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
>Institute of Education
>20 Bedford Way
>London WC1H 0AL
>
>Tel: 020 7612 6593
>
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