Education

My view is that in the teaching of mathematics, we need to focus more on the what rather than the how. In fact, if we can get the first right, I believe that the second will follow naturally, organically. More simply, the what will naturally drive the how.

So what should we be teaching? A recent paper argues that we should be teaching the mathematics of mathematicians. Lest you think that’s a tall order, I have three things to say. First, yes it’s a tall order––good investigative problems are hard to find. Second, I am impressed by how much a piece of “real math” can be engineered to work well at the high school level. And third, I believe our kids are capable of so much more.

The RabbitMath program is a collaboration between the Mathematics Department at Queen’s and the Faculty of Education at UOttawa. Its objectives are first, to creation good activities and problems for grades 9 to 12, and second, to discover what happens when teachers take these into their classroom. Key to our success in these objectives are the contributions of our wonderful graduate students and a number of undergrads as well!