Dr. Valorie L. Zonnefeld
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17
God is the Lord of all (Colossians 1:15-20) and his lordship spans everything from butterflies to babies. This inclusive rule includes all that has and will be created, including mathematics. Unfortunately, mathematics is frequently taught without an acknowledgement of the lordship of Christ. This reductive approach leaves students with the impression that math is outside of Christ's domain, weakening our understanding of God and stripping mathematics of its beauty and good design.
The goal of this document is to provide resources for a coherent integration of faith and perspectival considerations throughout K-12 mathematics education. In support of this goal, it offers schools and individual teachers developmentally appropriate understandings and reflections regarding the integral nature of faith and mathematics.
The document is organized by grade level for kindergarten through eighth grade and by domain for high school following the design of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Each grade/domain includes essential questions which are developed from the Teaching for Transformation (TfT) Through-lines from the Center for the Advancement of Christian Education. CCSSM references are in bold.
In keeping with the spiral nature of mathematics curriculum, essential questions often arise more than once as students add breadth and depth to their understanding. Each essential question has sub-bullets to help address the question. These sub-bullets may include specific mathematical concepts, supporting questions, resource suggestions, Bible verses or activities. You will notice that some questions have answers and others do not. Note that the "answers" are often only suggestions of possible answers. Many of the questions have no answer at all. This is intentional as the questions are often open ended and asked not "to get the right answer", but to motivate discussions of the way that our faith and doing mathematics interact.
This document contains an additional dimension, the integration of the five views of mathematics as presented by Reys, Lindquist, Lambdin and Smith (2015). These views are helpful lenses to see how our lives are permeated by mathematics. It is against this backdrop, with the desire that we acknowledge the Lordship of Christ in the entirety of our lives, that we see how mathematics and our faith so frequently intersect. Not only do faith and mathematics intersect, but an awareness of the Creator of mathematics brings added depth and beauty to both mathematics and God. As one of my students wrote, “the sum of math and religion is far greater than the sum of these entities separately” (Van Beek, 2020).
Reys, Lindquist, Lambdin, and Smith (2015)
Mathematics as a study of patterns recognizes that mathematics is bursting with order and relationships. This view unifies mathematics as students see patterns that connect ideas.
Mathematics as a way of thinking emphasizes a view that uses mathematical approaches to organize, synthesize, and analyze information.
Mathematics as an art depicts the creative aspect that each student brings to mathematics within a study that is characterized by order and consistency. Students improve their ability to practice this art similar to a craftsman improves upon his craft.
Mathematics as a language represents the ways in which humans use mathematics to communicate ideas. The language of mathematics uses terms and symbols to clearly communicate quantitative and spatial information.
Mathematics as a tool recognizes the uncanny utility that mathematics has in our creation. The tool of mathematics is a necessity for flourishing in modern living.