Students Voices: Taylor

Taylor is a Liberal Studies major (Elementary Education) at Cal Poly, and shares her thoughts about her IBL experiences in Professor Grundmeier's IBL Math for Elementary Teaching classes.

Transformative experiences come in different forms.  In this case, Taylor learned about herself. She learned that she is a math teacher and her experiences in IBL math classes showed her a pathway towards a career in secondary math teaching!

"There's not just one way to solve a math problem..."

Beginning of Fall: IBL Blog Playlist

I want to wish all teachers starting their terms now or in a few weeks the very best. The start of a school year is a busy time, and much thought and effort goes into getting up to speed with classes, advising, mentoring, committee work, and on and on. Upward and onward!

We recently compiled an IBL Blog Playlist. This playlist has some of the main ideas we have shared over the years, compiled on a single page. Blog posts were reactions to needs discovered in our work in the IBL community, and over time it has become hard to find the older posts that are still relevant.  We'll keep updating the playlist periodically to keep up with content.

IBL Blog Playlist

Quick point: If you can do only one thing IBLish, try Think-Pair-Share!

CBMS Statement on Active Learning

Okay, this is a really big deal.  The Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences has weighed in. CBMS supports active learning (CBMS Active Learning Statement)!

Just to be clear, this isn't one or two professors clicking a like button on social media. Let's take a look at the CBMS member societies:

• AMATYC, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges
• AMS, American Mathematical Society
• AMTE, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators
• ASA, American Statistical Association
• ASL, Association for Symbolic Logic
• AWM, Association for Women in Mathematics
• ASSM, Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics
• BBA, Benjamin Banneker Association
• IMS, Institute of Mathematical Statistics
• INFORMS, Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• MAA, Mathematical Association of America
• NAM, National Association of Mathematicians
• NCSM, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics
• NCTM, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• SIAM, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
• SOA, Society of Actuaries
• TODOS, TODOS: Mathematics for ALL

These are the main players in college-level mathematics (and PreK-12 mathematics).  They have all signed on to supporting active learning, because "A wealth of research has provided clear evidence that active
learning results in better student performance and retention than more traditional, passive forms of instruction alone. "

The statement goes on to say in bold, "...we call on institutions of higher education, mathematics departments and the mathematics faculty, public policy-makers, and funding agencies to invest time and resources to ensure that effective active learning is incorporated into post-secondary mathematics classrooms."

It needs to be stressed, that active learning and IBL are not fads or fashion statements. These are methods that have been developed over long time periods. Certainly it takes much more work and energy to successfully teach via active learning (e.g. IBL), and for people like me it's not worth it, if it doesn't work.  I have better things to do with my time than just do things for stylistic reasons in my classes.  But we have a lot more evidence now that students learn better, retain more, and inequities like gender bias can be mitigated via active learning strategies.

If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to take a step towards actively engaging your students!