New: Doing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Mathematics

Doing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Mathematics

Jacqueline M. Dewar and Curtis D. Bennett, Editors

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) movement encourages faculty to view teaching “problems” as invitations to conduct scholarly investigations. In this growing field of inquiry faculty bring their disciplinary knowledge and teaching experience to bear on questions of teaching and learning. They systematically gather evidence to develop and support their conclusions. The results are to be peer reviewed and made public for others to build on.

This Notes volume is written expressly for collegiate mathematics faculty who want to know more about conducting scholarly investigations into their teaching and their students’ learning. Conceived and edited by two mathematics faculty, the volume serves as a how-to guide for doing SoTL in mathematics.

The four chapters in Part I provide background on this form of scholarship and specific instructions for undertaking a SoTL investigation in mathematics. Part II contains fifteen examples of SoTL projects in mathematics from fourteen different institutions, both public and private, spanning the spectrum of higher educational institutions from community colleges to research universities. These chapters “reveal the process of doing SoTL” by illustrating many of the concepts, issues, methods and procedures discussed in Part I. An Editors’ Commentary opens each contributed chapter to highlight one or more aspects of the process of doing SoTL revealed within. Toward the end of each chapter the contributing authors describe the benefits that accrued to them and their careers from participating in SoTL.

The final chapter in the volume, the Epilogue, represents a synthesis by the editors of the contributing authors’ perceptions of the value of SoTL. This volume has two goals: to assist mathematics faculty interested in undertaking a scholarly study of their teaching practice and to promote a greater understanding of this work and its value to the mathematics community.

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Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences

Check out David Bressoud's post Mathematics for the Biological Sciences in his blog Launchings where he discusses one of our latest ebooks, Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Models, Processes, and Directions edited by Glenn Ledder, Jenna P. Carpenter, and Timothy D. Comar.

MAA has just published a Notes volume, Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Models, Processes, and Directions [1] that provides examples and advice for mathematics departments that want to reach out to the growing population of biological science majors.

Biological science majors have replaced prospective engineers as the largest group of students taking regular Calculus I. From the MAA’s Calculus Survey [2], just over 28% of all students in mainstream Calculus I intend to pursue a major in the biological sciences, the largest single group of majors in this course.

Read the full post here.

New in the MAA eBooks Store

Undergraduate Mathematics for the Life Sciences: Models, Processes, and Directions Glenn Ledder, Jenna P. Carpenter, Timothy D. Comar, Editors MAA Notes In this volume, authors from a variety of institutions address some of the problems involved in reforming mathematics curricula for biology students. The problems are sorted into three themes: Models, Processes, and Directions. It is difficult for mathematicians to generate curriculum ideas for the training of biologists so a number of the curriculum models that have been introduced at various institutions comprise the Models section. Processes deals with taking that great course and making sure it is institutionalized in both the biology department (as a requirement) and in the mathematics department (as a course that will live on even if the creator of the course is no longer on the faculty). Directions looks to the future, with each paper laying out a case for pedagogical developments that the authors would like to see.

Applications of Mathematics in Economics Warren Page, Editor MAA Notes Applications of Mathematics in Economics presents an overview of the (qualitative and graphical) methods and perspectives of economists. Its objectives are not intended to teach economics, but rather to give mathematicians a sense of what mathematics is used at the undergraduate level in various parts of economics, and to provide students with the opportunities to apply their mathematics in relevant economics contexts. The volume’s applications span a broad range of mathematical topics and levels of sophistication. Each article consists of self-contained, stand-alone, expository sections whose problems illustrate what mathematics is used, and how, in that subdiscipline of economics. The problems are intended to be richer and more informative about economics than the economics exercises in most mathematics texts. Since each section is self-contained, instructors can readily use the economics background and worked-out solutions to tailor (simplify or embellish) a section’s problems to their students’ needs. Overall, the volume’s 47 sections contain more than 100 multipart problems. Thus, instructors have ample material to select for classroom uses, homework assignments, and enrichment activities.

Purchase these books today in the MAA eBooks Store.