Viktor Freiman

Sergei Abramovich

This book explores the topic of using technology, both physical and digital, to motivate creative mathematical thinking among students who are not considered ‘mathematically advanced.’ The book reflects the authors’ experience of teaching mathematics to Canadian and American teacher candidates and supervising several field-based activities by the candidates. It consists of eight chapters and an Appendix which includes details of constructing computational learning environments. Specifically, the book demonstrates how the appropriate use of technology in the teaching of mathematics can create conditions for the emergence of what may be called ‘collateral creativity,’ a notion similar to Dewey’s notion of collateral learning. Just as collateral learning does not result from the immediate goal of the traditional curriculum, collateral creativity does not result from the immediate goal of traditional problem solving. Rather, mathematical creativity emerges as a collateral outcome of thinking afforded by the use of technology. Furthermore, collateral creativity is an educative outcome of one’s learning experience with pedagogy that motivates students to ask questions about computer-generated or tactile-derived information and assists them in finding answers to their own or the teacher’s questions. This book intends to provide guidance to teachers for fostering collateral creativity in their classrooms.

Paying Attention to Students’ Emerging Ideas in the Age of Technology

Fostering Collateral Creativity in School Mathematics

This book reflects the author’s experience in teaching a mathematics content course for pre-service elementary teachers. The book addresses a number of recommendations of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences for the preparation of teachers demonstrating how abstract mathematical concepts can be motivated by concrete activities. Such an approach, when enhanced by the use of technology, makes it easier for the teachers to grasp the meaning of generalization, formal proof, and the creation of an increasing number of concepts on higher levels of abstraction. A strong experiential component of the book made possible by the use of manipulative materials and digital technology such as spreadsheets, The Geometer’s Sketchpad, Graphing Calculator 3.5 (produced by Pacific Tech), and Kid Pix Studio Deluxe makes it possible to balance informal and formal approaches to mathematics, allowing the teachers to learn how the two approaches complement each other. Classroom observations of the teachers’ learning mathematics as a combination of theory and experiment confirm that this approach elevates one’s mathematical understanding to a higher ground. The book not only shows the importance of mathematics content knowledge for teachers but better still, how this knowledge can be gradually developed in the context of exploring grade-appropriate activities and tasks and using computational and manipulative environments to support these explorations. Most of the chapters are motivated by a problem/activity typically found in the elementary mathematics curricula and/or standards (either National or New York State – the context in which the author prepares teachers). By exploring such problems in depth, the teachers can learn fundamental mathematical concepts and ideas hidden within a seemingly mundane problem/activity. The need to have experience in going beyond traditional expectations for learning is due to the constructivist orientation of contemporary mathematics pedagogy that encourages students to ask questions about mathematics they study. Each chapter includes an activity set that can be used for the development of the variety of assignments for the teachers. The material included in the book is original in terms of the approach used to teach mathematics to the teachers and it is based on a number of journal articles published by the author in the United States and elsewhere. Mathematics educators who are interested in integrating hands-on activities and digital technology into the teaching of mathematics will find this book useful. Mathematicians who teach mathematics to the teachers as part of their teaching load will be interested in the material included in the book as it connects childhood mathematics content and mathematics for the teachers.

A Technology-Enhanced Experiential Approach

Topics in Mathematics for Elementary Teachers

This book promotes the experimental mathematics approach in the context of secondary mathematics curriculum by exploring mathematical models depending on parameters that were typically considered advanced in the pre-digital education era. This approach, by drawing on the power of computers to perform numerical computations and graphical constructions, stimulates formal learning of mathematics through making sense of a computational experiment. It allows one (in the spirit of Freudenthal) to bridge serious mathematical content and contemporary teaching practice. In other words, the notion of teaching experiment can be extended to include a true mathematical experiment. When used appropriately, the approach creates conditions for collateral learning (in the spirit of Dewey) to occur including the development of skills important for engineering applications of mathematics. In the context of a mathematics teacher education program, the book addresses a call for the preparation of teachers capable of utilizing modern technology tools for the modeling-based teaching of mathematics with a focus on methods conducive to the improvement of the whole STEM education at the secondary level. By the same token, using the book’s pedagogy and its mathematical content in a pre-college classroom can assist teachers in introducing students to the ideas that develop the foundation of engineering profession.

Computational Experiment Approach to Advanced Secondary Mathematics Curriculum

Michael L. Connell

This textbook is for prospective teachers of middle school mathematics. It reflects on the authors’ experience in offering various mathematics education courses to prospective teachers in the US and Canada. In particular, the content can support one or more of 24-semester-hour courses recommended by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (2012) for the mathematical preparation of middle school teachers. The textbook integrates grade-appropriate content on all major topics in the middle school mathematics curriculum with international recommendations for teaching the content, making it relevant for a global readership. The textbook emphasizes the inherent connections between mathematics and real life, since many mathematical concepts and procedures stem from common sense, something that schoolchildren intuitively possess. This focus on teaching formal mathematics with reference to real life and common sense is essential to its pedagogical approach. In addition, the textbook stresses the importance of being able to use technology as an exploratory tool, and being familiar with its strengths and weaknesses. In keeping with this emphasis on the use of technology, both physical (manipulatives) and digital (commonly available educational software), it also explores e.g. the use of computer graphing software for digital fabrication. In closing, the textbook addresses the issue of creativity as a crucial aspect of education in the digital age in general, and in mathematics education in particular.

A Textbook for Teaching in the Age of Technology

Developing Deep Knowledge in Middle School Mathematics

The goal of the book is to technologically enhance the preparation of mathematics schoolteachers using an electronic spreadsheet integrated with Maple and Wolfram Alpha — digital tools capable of sophisticated symbolic computations. The content of the book is a combination of mathematical ideas and concepts associated with pre-college problem solving curriculum and their extensions into more advanced mathematical topics. The book provides prospective and practicing teachers with a foundation for developing a deep understanding of many concepts fundamental to the teaching of school mathematics. It also provides the teachers with a technical expertise in designing spreadsheet-based computational environments. Consistent with the current worldwide guidelines for technology-enhanced teacher preparation, the book emphasizes the integration of context, mathematics, and technology as a method for teaching mathematics. Throughout the book, a number of mathematics education documents developed around the world (Australia, Canada, England, Japan, Singapore, United States) are reviewed as appropriate.

Sergei Abramovich

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