Please Don't Do "Connect the Dots": Mathematics Lessons with Social Issues

Summer 2010 / Comments (0)

This article describes research conducted in a junior-level Mathematics for Social Analysis course for elementary and middle grades preservice teachers, as part of the MEPI project. We summarize preservice teachers' overall reflections on their experiences in the course, and we discuss their experiences with writing K–8 mathematics lesson plans/units centered on social issues. We explain preservice teachers' struggles to balance emphases on mathematics, reform-based pedagogy, and social issues in these lessons. We describe the use of traditional and/or nonchallenging mathematics, the trivializing of social issues, the arbitrary connecting of social issues and mathematics, and the creation of artificial connections and questions about the social issues. We conclude by summarizing lessons learned from these challenges.
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Project Quantum Leap and SENCER at LaGuardia Community College

Summer 2010 / Comments (0)

The Project Quantum Leap (PQL) program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education to promote teaching basic skills mathematics in compelling contexts to a new setting and population—high-risk urban community college students. Teaching materials for three courses – Introduction to Algebra, Elementary Algebra, and College Algebra and Trigonometry are developed based on the ideas of SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and responsibilities) model for teaching science and math. Faculty from math, English, and humanities departments participated in professional development seminars to develop the required teaching material. Over the three years twenty-six PQL math courses and thirteen PQL math learning communities were taught.
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