The Mathematical Sciences Education Board Action Plan has said that we should teach future teachers in the ways they will be expected to teach and that we should establish mathematics programs consistent with national standards for the mathematical preparation of teachers. National standards, recently developed, require substantial and well-targeted change in content and in classroom practices in elementary grades. The undergraduate mathematics education of our future teachers is of extremeimportance, both locally and nationwide. We want to produce students, at an early age, who are mathematical thinkers. If we are successful in our efforts we are likely to reduce, for example, the high numbers of students who must take remedial courses in college and increase the low numbers who complete degrees in mathematics and the sciences.
Teacher education is an obvious place to begin to stop the cycle of ill-prepared students.
You will become active participants in the learning process rather than passive recipients of information. The work that we do in this class will help to enable you to reason, investigate, and understand concepts. Our classroom activities will include critical thinking and questioning, searching for patterns and contradictions, discussion, debate, and persuasive argument. You will use physical models and technology to enhance your understanding of ideas. My role, in the classroom, will be one of disseminating information and guiding mathematics learning in the previously stated ways.