Fostering Children's Mathematical Power : An Investigative Approach To K-8 Mathematics Instruction

Teachers have the responsibility of helping all of their students construct the disposition and knowledge needed to live successfully in a complex and rapidly changing world. To meet the challenges of the 21st century, students will especially need mathematical power: a positive disposition toward mathematics (curiosity and self confidence), facility with the processes of mathematical inquiry (problem solving, reasoning and communicating), and well connected mathematical knowledge (an understanding of mathematical concepts, procedures and formulas). This guide seeks to help teachers achieve the capability to foster children's mathematical power - the ability to excite them about mathematics, help them see that it makes sense, and enable them to harness its might for solving everyday and extraordinary problems. The investigative approach attempts to foster mathematical power by making mathematics instruction process-based, understandable or relevant to the everyday life of students. Past efforts to reform mathematics instruction have focused on only one or two of these aims, whereas the investigative approach accomplishes all three. By teaching content in a purposeful context, an inquiry-based fashion, and a meaningful manner, this approach promotes chilren's mathematical learning in an interesting, thought-provoking and comprehensible way. This teaching guide is designed to help teachers appreciate the need for the investigative approach and to provide practical advice on how to make this approach happen in the classroom. It not only dispenses information, but also serves as a catalyst for exploring, conjecturing about, discussing and contemplating the teaching and learning of mathematics.

description
This Text Is The Product Of A Seven Year Effort To Develop An Elementary Mathematics Methods Text That fully Implements The Nctm Standards For Mathematics Teaching And Learning. These Standards Do Not Recommend A Band-aid Approach To Reform, That Is, Supplementing Existing Practices With Some New Techniques To Better Accomplish The Same Old Goals. Instead The Standards Propose Radical Surgery, Profound Changes In What And How Mathematics Is Taught And Assessed. That Is The Purpose Of This Text, To Show How To Make Mathematics Instruction Consistent With All Three Of The Central Nctm Tenets:
1. Making Mathematics Relevant To The Everyday Lives Of Students.
2. Making Mathematics A Problem-based Or Reasoning-based Activity.
3. Making Mathematics A Meaningful (understandable) Learning Activity.

features
investigative Approach--the Author Imbeds These Three Tenets In What He Labels The investigative Approach To Mathematics Instruction. It Involves A Unique Format In Which Students Interact With The Text Material Through A Series Of reader Inquiries That Explore Key Ideas About Mathematics, Children's Mathematical Learning, And Mathematical Teaching. These Inquiries Constitute The Core Of The Book.

personalized Teaching Guide--to Encourage Personalized Learning, The Pages Of This Book Have Been Perforated And 3-hole Punched So That Its Contents Can Be Reorganized And/or Mixed With Materials From Other Sources To Form A Personalized Teaching Guide. In Short, This Book Should Be Viewed As A Starting Point In The Long Road To Professional Development In Mathematics Instruction.

"Fostering Children's Mathematical Power: An Investigative Approach to K-8 Mathematics Instruction is the product of an 8-year effort to develop an elementary mathematics methods text that provides practical advice on how to implement the NCTM standards for mathematics teaching and learning. These standards do not recommend a 'band-aid approach' to reform, that is, supplementing existing practices with some new techniques to better accomplish the same goals. Instead, the standards propose radical surgery, profound changes in what and how mathematics is taught and assessed. This text illustrates and describes how to implement the investigative approach, which embodies the three central tenets of the NCTM standards: making it relevant to the everyday lives of students (purposeful); making it problem-based or reasoning-based (inquiry-based); and making it understandable (meaningful). This teaching guide involves a unique format in which students interact with the text material through a series of reader inquiries that promote the exploration of key ideas about mathematics, children's mathematical learning, and mathematics teaching. These inquiries constitute the core of this text and can serve to model the investigative approach. That is, they can involve readers in, for example, problem solving, reasoning, communicating, conjecturing, discovery learning, and resolving cognitive conflict."--Publisher's description First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company