Spring Quarter, 2008; University of Washington, Seattle
TuTh 5:30-6:50 in MEB 246.
Lecturer:
Prof. Judith M. Arms
arms@math.washington.edu
For information about this course in other quarters, please contact
the Math Student Services Office, C-38 PDL, (206)543-6830.
Texts: 1. Reconceptualizing Mathematics
(preliminary edition, parts 1 and 2), by Sowder, Sowder, and Nickerson.
Every student needs to have a copy of this text.
2. Fear of Math, by C. Zaslavsky. You will read this book and
write a short paper on it. It is quite reasonable for a couple of students
to share a copy of this book.
We assume you are taking this course because you plan to be an elementary school teacher (or are seriously considering this). Elementary school mathematics is no longer considered just a collection of computational tools, but rather a rich body of intellectual content that uses computational tools, but focuses more on understanding, reasoning, and communication. Teaching this content requires a profound understanding of elementary mathematics. This course is designed to help you start developing this profound understanding.
The focus on understanding, reasoning, and communication makes class discussion and writing key components of the course. In particular, attendance at all of every (or almost every) class is required. If you will miss all or part class on a regular basis, you should not take this course this quarter.
Note that this is a content course, not a methods course. While we will aim to model good teaching techniques, we will be addressing mainly questions of mathematical content, not methods for teaching elementary school students. If you enter the Masters in Teaching program, you will take a methods course on teaching mathematics in the College of Education.
This is a credit/no credit class. To receive credit for the course, you must have credit for every one of the components: Classwork, Homework, Reflection Papers, a Project, and quizzes and tests. More details of what is required for credit in each of these will be available soon in the course syllabus.
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