What Should Students Learn From Advanced Mathematics?
(And How Should We Teach It to Them?)
When undergraduate students finish their mathematics courses, what lasting
knowledge would you hope they have gained? Of course they should have learned
the "how-to" mathematics, such as how to solve linear equations, how to solve
differentiate functions, and so on. But what else should they know in order
to use mathematics more effectively as a problem-solving tool in their personal
lives, and how can we be sure they acquire these skills?
Some practical answers are presented in this talk, including a discussion of
the mathematical principals, students need to learn for organizing knowledge
and for understanding why certain facts are true.
New ways to teach these topics are also proposed.
Go back to the Fall 95 schedule.