Curriculum Development Section NExT Southern California Nevada MAA Meeting CSU Channel Island October 8, 2005 Magnhild Lien CSU Northridge

Do you know who your students are and what their needs are? Does your department have an ongoing curriculum design/development process? Do you collaborate with faculty from other disciplines or other universities/community colleges when designing your courses? Should mathematics courses for prospective teachers be taught differently than other mathematics courses?

The Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM) Curriculum Guide 2004 may be downloaded from the MAA Web Site

The Mathematical Education of Teachers (MET) Report may be downloaded from the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) Web site

Recommendations from the CUPM guide Understand the strengths, weaknesses, career plans, fields of study, and aspirations of the students enrolled in mathematics courses. Every course should incorporate activities that will help students progress in developing analytical, critical reasoning, problem solving skills and acquiring mathematical habits of mind.

Every course should strive to present key ideas and concepts from a variety or perspectives; employ a broad range of examples and applications to motivate and illustrate the material Mathematical sciences departments should encourage and support faculty collaboration with colleagues from other departments to modify and develop mathematics courses, create joint and or cooperative majors, devise undergraduate research projects, and possibly team teach courses or units within a course

At every level of the curriculum, some courses should incorporate activities that will help students progress in learning to use technology appropriately and effectively as a tool for solving problems. Mathematical sciences departments and institutional administrators should encourage, support and reward faculty efforts to improve efficacy of teaching and strengthen curricula

Recommendations from the MET report The report which came out in 2001 has been touted widely as the report for mathematics department to use as they contemplate changing the curriculum they offer to prospective K- 12 teachers.

The two main themes of the MET report are: the intellectual substance in school mathematics and the special nature of the mathematical knowledge needed for teaching. The report claims that mathematicians are particularly qualified to teach mathematics in the connected, sense-making way that teachers need.

Furthermore one needs to move away from the notion that as long as the prospective teachers take enough mathematics courses they will be good teachers. Liping Ma’s book eludes to the fallacy of this belief. There needs to be greater cooperation between two-year and four-year colleges in the mathematical education of teachers. Two-year colleges are essential partners in the mathematical education of teachers.