Faculty Participate in 2005 Summer Courses, Revise IHE Courses

Fourteen IHE faculty members from the Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership (GBMP) participated in the summer mathematics course Patterns, Functions, and Algebraic Reasoning alongside in-service and pre-service teachers.  The response from the faculty members was very enthusiastic. Subsequently, revisions were made to IHE courses including Dr. Tommy Smith’s mathematics course for future teachers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Dr. Eileen Moore’s Teaching Mathematics course at Birmingham-Southern College. Dr. Smith commented, “Revising my mathematics for elementary and middle school teachers course to be a more constructivist one was a challenge and a worthwhile venture.  Though we covered less breadth of content than I traditionally would have covered, the depth of understanding and the level of problem solving made up for any lack of coverage.  Students were more engaged in solving problems and sharing and debating mathematical ideas than they had ever been before in the traditionally taught course.  The enthusiasm of the students and their statements about the value of their experiences in the course encouraged me to want to continue on the path of reform.  Assessment and assigning course grades to fairly match the levels of learning of the students turned out to be the biggest challenge I faced.  My goals are to continue to search for good problems and mathematical tasks and to refine the assessment system used in assigning course grades.”