Yes, Another Handbook and Why You Might Want to Read This One

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-213
Author(s):  
Cynthia W. Langrall

In today's world, data and statistical information permeate our lives, making it imperative that we educate students to be statistically literate. Statistical literacy is the ability to read and interpret statistical information to make informed decisions about events under conditions of uncertainty. Recently, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) published a document, Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics: Initiating Critical Conversations (2018), in which it proposed statistics as one of four essential content domains in secondary school mathematics and acknowledged quantitative literacy—the ability to reason both statistically and numerically—as a crucial life skill for all students. For a number of years, statistics has been an important content strand across grade levels in the school mathematics curricula of many countries. Thus, it is understandable that students and even teachers might perceive statistics simply as another topic in mathematics.

1920 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-44

A realization of the need of a central organization to foster the interests of high school mathematics and to secure a greater degree of co-operation between individual teachers and between local associations of teachers interested in secondary school mathematics impelled a group of mathematics teachers to assemble at Cleveland last February at the time of the meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the N. E. A. There were present at this meeting 127 teachers of mathematics representing twenty states and as many local organizations. At that time The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics was formed. A constitution was adopted and the following officers elected


Author(s):  
Gail Burrill

Given a world awash with data, students of today will be consumers of statistical information whatever their future. What can we do to make them critical consumers as articulated by researchers such as Gal and Steen and as suggested in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Catalyzing Change, able to process information, ask the right questions and make informed decisions? This paper explores what it means to be statistically literate able to reason with quantitative information in today’s world and why it is important from both a personal and professional perspective. Examples from several fields illustrate features of essential core concepts that should be components of the curriculum for all students if we are to have statistically literate citizens capable of thinking and reasoning in quantitative situations. The discussion will also address some of the challenges we face in making this recommendation a reality.


1936 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-192
Author(s):  
Edwin W. Schreiber

The Seventeenth Annual Meeting ofthe National Council of Teachers of Mathematics was held in St. Louis, Missouri, December 31, 1935 to January 1, 1936. This is the first annual meeting the National Council has held with the A.A.A.S. One hundred eighty-four registered for the meetings though the total attendance was well in excess of two hundred. A joint session with Section A of the A.A.A.S., the American Mathematical Society, and the Mathematical Association of America, was held on Tuesday morning, December 31, with approximately 250 in attendance. Professor Kenncth P. Williams of I ndiana University presented a temporary report of the Joint Commission on the Place of Mathematics in the Secondary School. “The Main Purposes and Objectives in Teaching High School Mathematics” was discussed by William Betz of Rochester, New York, representing the National Council, and W. W. Hart, representing the Mathematical Association of America. On Tuesday afternoon the National Council presented a Symposium on the Teaching of Geomcetry. Professor W. H. Roever of Washington University, St. Louis, discussed in a very thorough manner the 11Purpose, Nature, and use of Pictures in the Teaching of Solid Geometry.” John T. Rule, the Taylor School, Clayton, Missouri, presented an interesting paper on “Stereoscopy as an Aid to the Teaching of Solid Geometry.” The session closed with a stimulating discussion by Rolland R. Smith, Classical High School, Springfield, Mass., on “Developing the Meaning of Demonstration in Geometry.” The Tuesday evening session was opened by an address of welcome by the Rev. Father Robert S. Johnston, President of St. Louis University. The response was made by Miss Edith Woolsey of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Professor Edwin W. Schreiber, State Teachers College, Macomb, Illinois, presented an illustrated lecture on “The History of the Development of the Metric System.” Miss Ruth Lane, University High School, Iowa City, Iowa, presented an illuminating paper on “Mathematical Recreations, an Aid or a Relief?” On Wednesday morning, J anuary 1, the Annual Business session of the National Council was held. At this session Professor H. E. Slaught of the University of Chicago was honored in being elected Honorary President of the National Council. Secretary Schreiber as Chairman of the Ballot Committee announced the results of the annual election: President—Miss Martha Hildebrandt, Proviso Township High School, Maywood, Illinois; second Vice President-Miss Mary Kelly, Wichita, Kansas; three new members of the Board of Directors—E. R. Breslich, Chicago, Illinois, Leonard D. Haertter, Clayton, Missouri, and Virgil S. Mallory, Montclair, New Jersey. The morning session closed with two interesting papers: “Functiona! Thinking and Teaching in Secondary School Mathematics” by Professor H. C. Christofferson, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; and “The Crisis in Mathematics—at Rome and Abroad— by Professor William D. Reeve, Teachers


1937 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-22
Author(s):  
Harl R. Douglass

In connection with a committee report for the American Educational Research Association the author had occasion to search for and abstract the investigations reporting data relative to the respective achievements of boys and girls in high school mathematics. More studies were located than are reported here. Some of them were of doubtful reliability and a few were not available.


1955 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 413-415
Author(s):  
William David Reeve

I do not think that the various departments, so called, in The Mathematics Teacher are equally interesting or equally valuable, but a new department, introduced in the January, 1955, issue, is one that I think should receive the support of all teachers of mathematics whether or not they are actually members of The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. I refer, of course, to the new department edited by Kinney and Dawson of Stanford University. It will have my full support because I think that we have made a failure, more or less, of the junior high school movement.


1945 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 147-154
Author(s):  
Aubrey J. Kempner

The publication of a high-school mathematics text, Senior Mathematics, by Douglass and Kinney (Henry Holt and Co., 1945) furnishes me an opportunity to express some opinions concerning the relation between mathematics in the secondary school and in the college.


1967 ◽  
Vol 60 (8) ◽  
pp. 824-831
Author(s):  
Frederick Mosteller

The teaching of probability and statistics both in school and secondary school mathematics has come a very long way since the Commission on Mathematics first produced the Gray Book.1 Many commercial publishers have attractive texts, and SMSG and others have produced sections on probability and statistics for various grade levels.


1997 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-255
Author(s):  
Sharon Stenglein

ln this National Science Foundation (NFS) Teacher Enhancement Project, fifty Minnesota middle school and high school mathematics teachers are collaborating with three Saint Olaf CoUege mathematics professors to integrate inquiry-based geometry and visualization across their secondary mathematics curricula.


2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (6) ◽  
pp. 39-44
Author(s):  
Robert Q. Berry ◽  
Matthew R. Larson

Results on the National Assessment for Education Progress and the Program for International Student Assessment show that high school mathematics instruction is past due for a redesign. Despite calls for reform going back at least four decades, the structure of math instruction has remained largely the same. In April 2018, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics released Catalyzing Change in High School Mathematics: Initiating Critical Conversations to promote discussion of the changes needed. Robert Berry and Matthew Larson, current and past presidents of NCTM, describe the arguments within this report, asserting that the math curriculum needs to help students understand the mathematics that’s part of daily life, that tracking of students and teachers should be abandoned, that instruction should involve all students as doers of math, and that all students should experience a common curriculum.


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