Student Guide Corner

By  Jessica Deshler ,  West Virginia University There is something beautiful about the structure of mathematics that we can all appreciate, but it�s equally beautiful because it can be creative and messy. So is the teaching of mathematics. As mathematicians, we know and understand the complexities involved in our discipline, but sometimes overlook the underlying complexities of our classroom environment when preparing to teach. You�ve likely heard about the leaky pipeline � the phenomenon that describes the loss of women from STEM fields at various points in the academic pipeline. Because many undergraduate women leave the STEM pipeline after taking a mathematics course , our discipline can especially benefit from classroom practices known to help retain and support these students. You might wonder whether the gender breakdown in our classes or variation in our students� cultural and social backgrounds matter. We posit that these do matter, and that they can impact whether stu...

By Rick Cleary (guest blogger), Babson College A note from the Editors: This semester Teaching Tidbits will have several posts highlighting the new Instructional Practices Guide ( IP Guide ) from the Mathematical Association of America ( MAA ). The MAA has a long tradition of reporting what content should be taught in the mathematics classroom through its Curriculum Guide ; now the new IP Guide addresses how things could be taught in the mathematics classroom, how one could to design that experience, and how one could assess that experience. The suggested practices are well grounded in research on student learning. In our first post about the IP Guide, we dive deeper into the Assessment Practices section of the guide. Thanks to Rick Cleary, a lead writer for this section, for providing this post. The opening statement of the Assessment chapter of the MAA Instructional Practices guide makes the following claim: Effective assessment occurs when we clearly state high-quality goals for...