Review of
Doing
the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)In Mathematics,
edited by Jacqueline M. Dewar and Curtis D. Bennett, The Mathematical
Association of America, Washington, D. C., 2014. 210 pp., $43.00 (print on
demand). PDF price $23.00 ISBN 9780883851937.
This book
introduces a new acronym, (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, SoTL), but
that is the only new concept you will find. Dedicated teachers have been doing
what is described in this book since the math teacher position was first
defined. Math teachers are always scouring the mathematical countryside looking
for new ways to present the subject that they find so fascinating. When
something effective is discovered, it is then reported through academic
channels.
The titles of
the papers in this collection are generally consistent with the titles that
have been used in papers about the teaching of mathematics in the past. Some
examples of the papers in this book are:
*) “The Question of Transfer: Investigating How
Mathematics Contributes to a Liberal Education”
*) “An Investigation Into the Effectiveness of
Pre-Class Reading Questions”
*) “Assessing the Effectiveness of Classroom Visual
Cues”
*) “Playing Games to Teach Mathematics”
The last item in this list was my favorite in the
collection, where the author created a board game using the popular “Trivial
Pursuit” game as a model. When this pedagogical technique was used, the
inevitable happened, it was better to pit the good math students against each
other as well while the weaker ones also played each other. Any veteran of
playing the regular game of “Trivial Pursuit” has experienced this, strong
players tend to quickly silence the weaker ones.
If you are
interested in new ways to educate the latest round of students in mathematics,
there are many new ideas in this book. Just don’t expect the acronym to be
representing anything new under the mathematical sun.
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