Should ANY Adult take an Algebra Class?

In Michigan, we are working through a process to update the math courses that can be used to meet general education requirements.  We are using pathways concepts, and face the issue of intermediate algebra … and college algebra.  This has led me to ponder the question — is there a good reason for any adult to take an algebra class?

College courses, overall, are either for general education or for specialization.  Developmental math courses are a subset of the general education courses — they are pre-college level, and not specialized.  I know a few places have integrated developmental math into occupational courses; however, the majority of us do our developmental in a general context.

There is no need for an ‘algebra’ course in general education, whether developmental or not.  At the pre-college level, we focus on the mathematics that students need in college level courses.  Certainly, this preparation needs to include algebraic ideas, reasoning, and processes.  However, this basic algebra is a tool used in combination with other mathematics — whether geometry, statistics, networking, or other.  A developmental mathematics course might have more algebra than other domains, but will never serve students well if the only content is basic algebra.  Mathematical reasoning is not isolated bits of knowledge.

At the college level, a general education course is meant to provide breadth to a student’s understanding of the world.  An intense focus on algebra in a course for this purpose is misleading at best; more commonly, such an intense focus on algebra for general education creates barriers to completion with a course widely viewed as being disconnected from the real world.  A general education math course needs to be diverse, and show relevance.

The other broad category is ‘specialization’, usually related to a particular program or major.  The ‘algebra’ we are using in this discussion is a subset of polynomial algebra, which is nobody’s specialization; none of us teach such algebra courses because we were inspired to earn an advanced degree in the content.  This specialization, practically speaking, is justified by the study of calculus.  Even in a traditional calculus course, algebraic understanding is just one of the basic factors in success.  Visualization, flexibility, and breadth of knowledge are important as well.  We often provide separate courses in ‘college algebra’ and ‘trigonometry’ (with little geometry in either one), and then wonder at why students can not integrate their knowledge and apply it to new situations.

With all of the intense focus on developmental mathematics, we tend to not think about the curriculum at the next level … and whether it serves students well.  These courses in college algebra, trigonometry, and pre-calculus have completion rates that ‘compete’ (in a negative sense) with developmental courses; only the small ‘n values’ involved keeps this problem out of the attention of policy makers and grant-making foundations (is there a difference between those two?).  We have much work to do.

I do not believe any student should be faced with an algebra course.  Mathematics is much more interesting than that, and more diverse.  Let’s put a variety of good stuff (good mathematics) in every course a student takes.  We might even inspire significant numbers of students to take more mathematics.

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New Developmental Math Courses

A group of us within AMATYC have been working on new developmental math courses for the past 3 years — the New Life subcommittee of the Developmental Mathematics Committee.  Part of our efforts are meant to help more people understand a different view of what developmental mathematics can be … a model that frees us from the limitations of the old system, and provides better mathematics for our students.

You can find descriptive material about the courses over at the New Life wiki (dm-live.wikispaces.com) ; specifically, information on MLCS (Mathematical Literacy for College Students) at http://dm-live.wikispaces.com/Mathematical+Literacy+for+College+Students, and information on Transitions (the second course) at http://dm-live.wikispaces.com/TransitionsCourse.  We also have presentations on this blog site about the courses (see https://www.devmathrevival.net/?page_id=116).

Currently, we are busy getting ready for a workshop about these courses to be held at this year’s AMATYC Conference in Jacksonville, Florida.  The workshop will share more detailed information about the learning outcomes in MLCS and Transitions.  During this 2-hour session, we will look at the content so that faculty can become more comfortable with these new courses.

The AMATYC workshop is scheduled for Friday (November 9) from 1:45 to 3:45 pm in the Grand 3 ballroom.

A separate session on the New Life model in general will be held on Thursday (November 8) from 9:00 to 9:50am in the River Terrace 1 room.  If you would like to really get to know the model from New Life you might consider attending both sessions.

For information on the conference, see http://www.amatyc.org/Events/conferences/2012Jacksonville/index.html.  Registration has not begun yet … that will start within a few weeks.

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Pathways and New Life presentation

If you would like a ‘quick’ summary and comparison of the Pathways (Statway™ and Quantway™) and New Life model, take a look at this presentation.

  Pathways and New Life session MDEC 2012 final

There is also a ‘handout’ — references for the models, and the current visual for the New Life model.   Here is that handout: References_EmergingModels_March2012

 
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Creativity vs Standardized Tests

Realizing that this is a little outside of the stuff usually discussed here, I wanted to share somethat that one of my students shared with me.

You might already know of his work (I did not), this is a short presentation by Sir Ken Robinson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=youtu.be 

One of the points he makes is that the standardized tests that are so much emphasized these days are part of the industrial model of education, which served students well in the early 20th century and probably well enough in the mid-20th century.  However, in the world of today, the industrial model misses the real needs dealing with creativity and collaboration. 

As usual, there are points where I disagree with what he says; however, it’s an enjoyable 11 minutes … complete with a good sense of humor and some nice ‘animation’ (a little bit like a “Prezi”, if you know what that is).

So … enjoy!
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