A Mathematician's Angle on School Math : Essays from the First 25 Years of the MAA Online Column, Devlin's Angle, 1996-2020.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Devlin, Keith J.

Series:

Spectrum Series

Spectrum Series ; v.107

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--Popular works.

Mathematics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (275 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Providence : American Mathematical Society, 2025.

Summary:

First published in January 1996, Devlin's Angle is a popular online monthly feature on the MAA Math Values website. In this book, Keith Devlin has celebrated the first quarter century of the MAA's web presence by curating a collection of 46 of the 288 posts from that period, chosen for their relevance to K-12 mathematics teaching. The posts are organized into nine themed chapters, each beginning with its own introduction regarding the history and nature of the posts presented. Topics covered include the teaching of multiplication, teaching for conceptual understanding, and a discussion of mathematical creativity. The book closes with a final chapter touching on teaching at the college level. Due to the nature of mathematics, many of the columns contain observations that remain relevant in the present day. Devlin's lively, conversational style is encapsulated in this informative and thought-provoking collection. It will appeal to mathematics teachers at all levels, as well as anyone interested in mathematics education at the K-12 level.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright

Contents

About this book

Chapter 1. What is multiplication? The MIRA firestorm

The 2008 multiplication posts

Sep 2007. What is conceptual understanding?

Jun 2008. It ain't no repeated addition

JUL 2008. It's still not repeated addition

SEP 2008. Multiplication and those pesky British spellings

Chapter 2. The content in K-12 mathematics

DEC 2002. Why are equations important?

JUN 2004. Good stories, pity they're not true

MAY 2010. The problem with word problems

MAY 2011. The keyring problem: NCTM fumbles the ball

NOV 2013. The educational power of elementary arithmetic

AUG 2014. Most math problems do not have a unique right answer

DEC 2020. Mathematics for the Million

Chapter 3. How people learn mathematics

JUL 1999. Supermarket math

MAR 2006. How do we learn math? (The Math Wars)

DEC 2008. How do we learn math? (What cognitive scientists tell us)

DEC 2019. What firefighting, military tactics, cancer treatment, and teenage parties can tell us about learning math

Chapter 4. Teaching for conceptual understanding

JUN 2010. In math you have to remember, in other subjects you can think about it

MAR 2012. The difference between teaching and instruction

JAN 2015. Your father's mathematics teaching no longer works

DEC 2016. You can find the secret to doing mathematics in a tubeless bicycle tire

MAY 2017. The Math Gift myth

JUN 2019. What topics should be covered in high school mathematics? What can we learn from advanced math?

JUL 2019. Mathematics is a way of thinking-how can we best teach it?

Chapter 5. Innovating mathematics education

MAR 2008. Lockhart's Lament

MAY 2008. Lockhart's Lament-The Sequel

JUL 2010. Wanted: Innovative mathematical thinking

FEB 2016. Theorem: You are exceptional.

JAN 2018. Déjà vu, all over again

FEB 2018. How today's pros solve math problems: Part 1

MAR 2018. How today's pros solve math problems: Part 2

APR 2018. How today's pros solve math problems: Part 3 (The Nueva School course)

Chapter 6. Reflections on multiplication

JAN 2009. Should children learn math by starting with counting?

JAN 2010. Repeated addition-one more spin

JAN 2011. What exactly is multiplication?

NOV 2011. How multiplication is really defined in Peano arithmetic

Chapter 7. What is mathematical creativity?

FEB 2019. What is mathematical creativity, how do we develop it, and should we try to measure it? Part 1

MAR 2019. What is mathematical creativity, how do we develop it, and should we try to measure it? Part 2

Chapter 8. Mathematical proofs

DEC 1996. Moment of truth

MAY 2003. The shame of it

JUN 2008. When is a proof?

SEP 2019. What is a mathematical proof?

Chapter 9. College-level mathematics and its teaching

MAY 2000. Will the real continuous function please stand up?

OCT 2005. Common confusions

NOV 2005. Common confusions II

JUN 2006. Letter to a calculus student

MAY 2018. Calculation was the price we used to have to pay to do mathematics

OCT 2019. Student teaching evaluations are effective, but not in the way you think

Index (Selective)

Back Cover.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-4704-8089-1