Icon for: Al Cuoco

AL CUOCO

Education Development Center
Public Discussion

Continue the discussion of this presentation on the Multiplex. Go to Multiplex

  • Icon for: Joe Le Doux

    Joe Le Doux

    Associate Chair for Undergraduate Learning and Experience
    May 11, 2015 | 01:43 p.m.

    I love the idea of identifying mathematical habits of the mind. Have you published your findings yet? What have you identified as key habits of the mathematical mind? Can these ideas be used to guide teaching at the university level?

  • Sarah Sword

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 06:25 a.m.

    Hi Joe – thanks for the question. Here’s a link to papers and presentations: http://mhomresearch.edc.org/papers_and_presenta...

    And here’s a link to the habits we are studying right now:
    http://mhomresearch.edc.org/MHoM

    These ideas can guide teaching at all levels – my colleague Ryota Matsuura uses them as the basis of all his undergraduate work – he’d be happy to share materials with you. And Al Cuoco has a couple textbooks that might be interesting to investigate for post-secondary work.

  • Icon for: Joe Le Doux

    Joe Le Doux

    Associate Chair for Undergraduate Learning and Experience
    May 14, 2015 | 07:26 a.m.

    Thank you!

  • Al Cuoco

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 08:43 a.m.

    Hi Joe,

    The ``couple of textbooks’’ that Sarah mentions are published by MAA (with shortened urls here):

    http://go.edc.org/mathematical-connections

    http://go.edc.org/lma

    The original paper was published in 1996:

    Journal of Mathematical Behavior, v15 n4 p375-402 Dec 1996

    but you can download it (and lots of other stuff) at

    mpi.edc.org

    Thanks for the comments and question.

    Are you teaching mathematics at Georgia Tech?

    Al

  • Icon for: Joe Le Doux

    Joe Le Doux

    Associate Chair for Undergraduate Learning and Experience
    May 14, 2015 | 09:07 a.m.

    Hi Al,
    No, I don’t teach math, I teach biomedical engineering. But for quite some time I’ve thought about what and how I teach through the lens of “engineering habits of the mind”, so the title of your project naturally caught my eye. Also, math, of course, is central to much of what engineers do, and undergrads often struggle mightily with that aspect of their work.

  • Icon for: Beth Sanzenbacher

    Beth Sanzenbacher

    Facilitator
    Middle Science Instructional Leader
    May 12, 2015 | 01:48 a.m.

    Identifying and understanding mathematical habits of mind is important for all STEM teachers. You stated your surrey is not for teacher evaluation, but I am wondering if you think the results would be beneficial for teachers to reflect on and improve their practice?

  • Sarah Sword

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 06:25 a.m.

    Thanks for your question. Definitely the fun part of this for us is post-assessment discussions with teachers, in which they reflect on the various ways they solved the assessment items – that’s a step before “results,” but the results can be used in similar ways.

  • Icon for: Amie Patchen

    Amie Patchen

    Facilitator
    May 12, 2015 | 09:16 a.m.

    This seems like a really interesting project. Have you thought about developing a student version of the tools to explore the development of mathematical habits of mind in students as well?

  • Sarah Sword

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 06:26 a.m.

    Yes! Colleagues at EDC have done some preliminary work on that, including Al. Some of the items are fantastic! Feel free to contact us if you’d like to see them.

  • Icon for: Tammy Pirmann

    Tammy Pirmann

    Facilitator
    K-12 Coordinator
    May 12, 2015 | 01:46 p.m.

    Could you provide a link to a document of the habits of mind? I think this is very interesting, but would like to read what you have identified.

  • Sarah Sword

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 06:26 a.m.

    The simplest place to look around is our website:
    mhomresearch.edc.org. Let us know if you have any further questions, and thanks for the comment!

  • Al Cuoco

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 09:55 a.m.

    Hi Tammy,

    In addition to the refs that Sarah provided that provide the basis for our definitions in ASTHAM, here are some more general refs:

    Cuoco, A., Goldenberg, E. P., & Mark, J. Habits of Mind: An organizing principle for mathematics curricula. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, v15 n4 p375-402 Dec 1996

    (This is also available for download at mpi.edc.org)

    Cuoco, A., Goldenberg, E. P., & Mark, J. (2010). Organizing a curriculum around mathematical habits of mind. Mathematics Teacher, 103(9) 682-689.

    Goldenberg, E.P., Mark, J., & Cuoco, A. (May, 2010). An algebraic-habits-of-mind perspective on elementary school. Teaching Children Mathematics, 548-556.

    Mark, J., Cuoco, A., Goldenberg, E.P. & Sword, S. (May, 2010). Developing mathematical habits of mind. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 15(9), 505-509.

    Al

  • Icon for: Martha Merson

    Martha Merson

    Project Director
    May 13, 2015 | 10:41 p.m.

    Hi, You mentioned secondary school teachers. Do adult basic education or middle school teachers or community college instructors fit into your research plans? The Adult Numeracy Center at TERC serves MA adult ed math teachers. We are interested in being part of all kinds of research on math teaching and learning. Please keep us in mind as you or your students consider sites and partners for new studies.

  • Sarah Sword

    Guest
    May 14, 2015 | 06:26 a.m.

    Hi Martha, thanks for the comment. We are including middle school teachers in the current work but have not yet done much work with adult ed math teachers. That’s an interesting idea.

  • Icon for: David Carraher

    David Carraher

    Senior Scientist
    May 14, 2015 | 10:02 a.m.

    Hi Al,
    Thanks for the links to the MAA textbooks, which I look forward to reading.

    David

  • Icon for: Kathy Perkins

    Kathy Perkins

    Director
    May 15, 2015 | 05:11 p.m.

    Hi Al, Thanks for the video. We are beginning a new grant on designing and implementing simulations for developing algebraic thinking. We’ll be working with teachers over the next 3 years, and I thought it would be great to have a look at your instrument to see if it might be useful for our work. How far along is the development, and when do you think the instrument will be ready for use by other research efforts?

  • Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.