MATH
312
Elementary and Middle Grades Mathematics for Social Analysis
- Catalog Entry
MATH 312. Elementary and Middle Grades Mathematics for Social
Analysis
Credit hours (3).
Prerequisites: Math 111 and 112, or permission by instructor.
The primary purpose of this course is to prepare future
and current elementary and middle school teachers to critically
analyze and explore the world using mathematics. Students
will conduct meaningful and carefully reasoned real-world
investigations and critiques using elementary and middle
school mathematics and also communicate the results of these
problem-posing and problem-solving investigations both orally
and in writing. This course examines the interplay among
mathematical topics and integrates mathematics across the
curriculum. Students are introduced to the National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM] Standards and to the Virginia
Standards of Learning. Mathematical content emphases are
also based on the NCTM Standards and include topics in number
and operations, algebraic thinking, geometry, measurement,
and data analysis and probability. Students cannot earn
credit for both Math 312 and Math 315.
- Detailed Description of Course
This course has several emphases:
- First, this course provides students with opportunities
to deepen and increase the flexibility of their understanding
of elementary and middle grades mathematics content.
- Second, this course helps students begin thinking about
how to teach mathematics for understanding. We will use
mathematics manipulatives and technology and also discuss
and use the Virginia SOLs and the NCTM Standards documents
(1989, 2000).
- Third, and perhaps most importantly, this course prepares
students both to identify and carry out applications of
mathematics to other disciplines and to identify and examine
the relevance and significance of having and using mathematical
knowledge for civic purposes.
Given the general reputation mathematics has as an isolated
discipline, separate from the issues students confront in
their daily lives, and given also how many students who enroll
in this course will eventually teach multiple academic content
areas (e.g., those students planning to teach in elementary
schools), this course addresses important and yet widely
overlooked topics and issues in elementary and middle grades
mathematics education.
Mathematical content varies depending in part on the nature
of the projects that students create, select, and pursue.
Mathematical content always includes components from each
of the following five content strands, and includes the majority
of the following topics:
- Number and Operations:
- Number systems and place value
- Number lines
- Mental math and estimation
- Ratios and proportions
- Fractions, decimals, and percents
- Factors and multiples
- Algebraic Thinking:
- Variables
- Patterns and functions
- Graphing
- Mathematical models
- Analysis of change
- Geometry:
- Shapes
- Angles
- Spatial relationships and transformations
- Coordinate systems
- Geometry outside the classroom
- Geometric vocabulary
- Measurement:
- Length, weight, area, surface area, circumference,
and volume
- Standard and non-standard units of measurement
- Ratio and proportion
- Velocity and density
- Data Analysis and Probability:
- Measurement and categorical data
- Formulating questions, designing studies, and collecting
data
- Graphical representations of data
- Mean, median, mode, and range
- Probability concepts and simple experiments
Interdisciplinary content varies semester to semester depending
on current issues, student interest, and text selection.
Students are encouraged and supported to participate in mathematical
investigations of the world that span all content areas and
that make use of available technologies. Interdisciplinary
content always includes many diverse relationships to science,
social studies, and language arts. Course content includes
discussions of political, social, and economic challenges
and implications associated with reading and writing the
world using mathematics.
- Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
Course instructors model the type of instruction they support
students to also use as future teachers. Instruction includes
cooperative/group learning and projects, student research
and presentations both in and outside the classroom, small
group and whole class discussions and questioning, and student
explorations of mathematical concepts using manipulatives
and technology. Diverse assessments are used, including formative
assessments where students monitor their own learning, and
this information helps guide instructional decisions.
- Student Goals and Objectives of the Course
Course content and design addresses an historic problem
in mathematics education of instruction based on rote calculations,
drill and practice, worksheets, and “the” right
answer. It also addresses the problem in schools of the relative
isolation of mathematics from other disciplines and its segregation
from the issues that students confront outside of school
classrooms. This course aims to help future and current elementary
and mathematics teachers identify and engage seriously with
mathematics and its relevance in the world and in their own
and children’s lives. Students use mathematics as a
tool for participating in and investigating local and global
issues, and they give serious consideration to the social
and ethical consequences of how mathematics and statistics
are sometimes used in society. By performing individual and
group research combined with studies of elementary and middle
school mathematics as it relates to social phenomena and
issues, students link math and history, math and politics,
math and literature, and math and people. This course helps
students deepen their understandings of elementary and middle
school mathematics and its applications and allows students
to discuss as current and future teachers the need and implications
for children’s learning, understanding, and investigating
of mathematical concepts and their relevance in their own
communities as well as globally. The emphasis in this course
on elementary and middle grades mathematics for social analysis
currently represents a distinctive approach to mathematics
teacher education coursework. The course uniquely addresses
and extends the emphases of the NCTM Standards by combining
these mathematics-based recommendations with critical literacy
emphases and with popular recommendations for urban and multicultural
education for socially and culturally relevant instruction.
- Assessment Measures
Graded tasks are diverse and may include individual or group
projects and/or presentations, writing assignments, self
or peer assessments, and class participation. They may also
include assessments such as homework, quizzes, and written
exams.
- Other Course Information
None
- Review and Approval
Revised 08/17/05 |