Teaching secondary mathematics

Introduction

This free course, Teaching secondary mathematics, first discusses why people learn mathematics and how it is learned. It then moves onto a discussion of what it means to act and be mathematical. When teaching mathematics a consideration of why it is important to learn mathematics will help you decide how you expect your students to learn and what they need to learn to consider themselves ‘mathematical’. The course further considers what it means for teaching mathematics if students are to be lifelong learners and users of mathematics. Finally, the course considers teaching implications of taking the view that mathematics is a creative discipline.

This course will identify and explore four key questions that underpin all mathematics teaching. You will develop your practice as a mathematics teacher because the course will help you to:

• come to a more developed understanding of these questions and the issues that they raise
• explore these issues through the examples and activities provided
• reflect upon the implications of these examples for your own teaching.

Now listen to an introduction to this course by its author, Clare Lee:

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Transcript

Clare Lee

Hello. I'm Clare Lee. I have taught mathematics for many years and researched effective mathematics teaching and I've brought both of these together in authoring this course.

Mathematics is an essential of the school curriculum for very good reasons. Without mathematics buildings and structures would not be built safely. Economists couldn’t function but perhaps more surprisingly, some might think, hairdressers must use equations and proportionately when dyeing hair and nurses have to use mathematics accurately every day in their job.

Given the prevalence of mathematics concepts in an effectively functioning society it should be a surprise that mathematics teachers are asked, “why do we have to do this?” But it is asked in every classroom, most days.

Often mathematics seems to be a chameleon. It hides against the background of the real world. It is a maths teacher’s role to help their students to see the mathematics that is there.

In this course various positions are considered to help you think about answering the question “Why do we have to do this?”

Your answers will help you teach in ways that will not only enable your students to get the examination results that are so important for them, but also help them to see the value in mathematics for themselves, so they can start using mathematics in their day to day lives and perhaps continue to study mathematics beyond compulsory age.

Mathematics is a creative discipline although it’s sometimes talked about as if it’s not. As you study you will consider how you engage and motivate your pupils by presenting mathematics as something they can use to solve problems and to create models of reality that can be worked with.

I know that you will find it interesting. I hope you find it useful as well.

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As you work through the activities you will be encouraged to record your thoughts on an idea, an issue or a reading, and how it relates to your practice. Hopefully you will have opportunities to discuss your ideas with colleagues. We therefore suggest that you use a notebook – either physical or electronic – to record your thoughts in a way in which they can easily be retrieved and revisited. If you prefer, however, you can record your ideas in response boxes within the course – in order to do this, and to retrieve your responses, you will need to enrol on the course.

This OpenLearn course is part of a collection of Open University short courses for teachers and student teachers [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .