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Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics (1991)

Chapter: EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION

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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
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EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION

Evidence for the conclusions drawn in this report by the Committee on Mathematical Sciences in the Year 2000 was presented to the Committee in many forms, including hearings at professional meetings as well as prepared reports and testimony submitted by scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. Much of the evidence is contained in reports and studies published over the last several years. The list of references that follows includes the major reports that form the basis for the Committee's study.

Two documents [McKnight 1987, National Research Council 1989] provide documented analyses of problems concerning school mathematics and set forth key findings that serve to define issues at this educational level. The key

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

NCTM report [NCTM 1989] promulgates standards for curriculum and assessment in school mathematics, signalling the type of preparation that future college students may have and the type of curriculum that new teachers must be prepared to teach. The coordinated pair of recent reports [NCTM 1991, COMET 1991] establish standards for teaching school mathematics and for preparation of teachers of mathematics that are direct outgrowths of the 1989 standards document.

At the college level, two documents of the Mathematical Association of America [CUPM 1989, AAC 1990] set forth guidelines and recommendations concerning undergraduate mathematics—the first on curriculum, the second on the context of education. The 1990 document is itself heavily referenced to other reports, and includes explicit references to 68 reports and papers on undergraduate mathematics all published in the decade of the 1980s. Many of the themes raised in these two mathematics reports are reflected in a more general context in the recent Carnegie study [Boyer 1990] on the relation of scholarship to teaching.

More specialized reports have appeared on several initiatives that received much attention in recent years—improvement of calculus [Steen 1988, Tucker 1990], opportunities for enhancing college mathematics teaching [Schoenfeld 1990], the need for teaching methods that are more effective with minority students [Berriozabal 1989, Gillman 1990], improvement of graduate education [Jackson 1990], and renewal of research [BMS 1990a]. The MS2000 report [Madison 1990] outlines in great detail all relevant data concerning labor force, higher education, college and university mathematical sciences, majors in mathematics and statistics, and mathematical scientists in the workplace. Finally, the report [BMS 1990b] of the Board on Mathematical Sciences at the National Research Council suggests actions for renewal of U.S. mathematical sciences departments that are similar in many ways to the Action Plan recommended earlier in this report.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

REFERENCES

Association of American Colleges Study of the Arts and Sciences Major. Challenges for College Mathematics: An Agenda for the Next Decade. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1990.


Berriozabal, Manuel P. ''Why Hasn't Mathematics Worked for Minorities?" UME Trends, 1:2 (May 1989) 8.

Board on Mathematical Sciences. Renewing U.S. Mathematics: A Plan for the 1990s. National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1990.

Board on Mathematical Sciences. Actions for Renewing U.S. Mathematical Sciences Departments. Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, 1990.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

Boyer, Ernest L. Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, N.J.: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990.

Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers. A Call for Change: Recommendations for the Mathematical Preparation of Teachers of Mathematics. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1991.

Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics. Reshaping College Mathematics. MAA Notes No. 13. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1989.


Gillman, Leonard. "Teaching Programs That Work." Focus, 10:1 (1990) 7–10.


Jackson, Allyn B. "Graduate Education in Mathematics: Is it Working?" Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 37 (1990) 266–268.


Madison, Bernard L. and Hart, Therese A. A Challenge of Numbers: People in the Mathematical Sciences. Committee on Mathematical Sciences in the Year 2000, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1990.

McKnight, Curtis C., et al. The Underachieving Curriculum: Assessing U.S. School Mathematics from an International Perspective. Champaign, Ill.: Stipes Publishing Company, 1987.


National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1991.

National Research Council. Everybody Counts: A Report to the Nation on the Future of Mathematics Education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1989.


Schoenfeld, Alan (Ed.). A Source Book for College Mathematics Teaching. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1990.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

Steen, Lynn Arthur (Ed.). Calculus for a New Century: A Pump, Not a Filter. MAA Notes No. 8. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1988.

Tucker, Thomas (Ed.). Priming the Calculus Pump: Innovations and Resources. MAA Notes No. 17. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1990.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

Sources

To keep the text uncluttered, it contains few reference notes concerning individuals or data. The following notes identify the sources for quotations and graphic material contained in the text.

p. 1 The quotation is from Robert M. White, president of the National Academy of Engineering, from Calculus for a New Century, page 9, Steen (1987).

The quotation from Renewing U.S. Mathematics, is from page 51, National Research Council (1990).

p. 9 The quotation from Everybody Counts is from page 10.

p. 13 The quotation from Everybody Counts is from page 41.

The quotation from A Challenge of Numbers is from page 4, Madison and Hart (1990).

p. 14 The quotation from Renewing U.S. Mathematics is from page 41.

p. 16 The quotation from Priming the Calculus Pump is from page 9 of Tucker (1990).

The quotation from Renewing U.S. Mathematics is from page 42.

p. 17 The quotation from A Challenge of Numbers is from page 35.

p. 19 The quotation from A Challenge of Numbers is from page 73.

p. 23 The quotation from Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate is from page 24 of Boyer (1990).

p. 25 The quotation from Priming the Calculus Pump is from page 9 of Tucker (1990).

p. 27 The quotation from Renewing U.S. Mathematics is from page 64.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×

p. 29 The quotation from Challenges for College Mathematics is from page 13 of Association of American Colleges (1990).

p. 31 The quotation from Challenges for College Mathematics is from page 8.

p. 43 The quotation from Everybody Counts is from page 39, National Research Council (1989).

Figures

Figure 1: The graph on page 32 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Figure 2: The graph on page 60 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Figure 3: The graph on page 30 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Figure 4: The graph on page 36 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Figure 5: The graph on page 36 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Figure 6: The graph on page 48 of A Challenge of Numbers.

Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
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Suggested Citation:"EVIDENCE AND DOCUMENTATION." National Research Council. 1991. Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1782.
×
Page 54
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Moving Beyond Myths: Revitalizing Undergraduate Mathematics Get This Book
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Over the next decade, the mathematical community and the nation's colleges and unversities must restructure fundamentally the culture, content, and context of undergraduate mathematics. Acknowledging the weaknesses in the present college mathematics curriculum and the ways in which it is taught, this book cites exemplary programs that point the way toward achieving the same world-wide preeminence for mathematics education that the United States enjoys in mathematical research.

Moving Beyond Myths sets forth ambitious goals for collegiate mathematics by the year 2000 and provides a sweeping plan of action to accomplish them. It calls on mathematics faculty, their departments, their professional societies, colleges and universities, and government agencies to do their parts to implement the plan, help the public move beyond commonly held myths about mathematics, and bring about a revitalization of undergraduate mathematics.

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