Adding Quantitative Reasoning to Your Course

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Adding Quantitative Reasoning to Your Course

• Some Ideas and Places to Begin

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Topics for Today

• What is Quantitative Literacy?
• What is a Q Course?
• One Idea for Adding Q to a Course
• Some Useful Resources
• Considerations to Keep in Mind

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What is Quantitative Literacy?

• Quantitative Literacy is not so much about
  understanding abstract concepts as about applying
  elementary tools in sophisticated settings
  (Steen, 2001)

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What is a Q Course?
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Requirements for a Q Course

• Instruction on applying mathematical concepts and
  techniques to solve problems
• Assessment via at least 2 assignments
• Feedback

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Types of Q Courses

• Courses where Primary Purpose is Q
• Courses where Q is Central to Content
• Courses where Q can Supplement or Enhance Student
  Learning

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Adding Q to a Course
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Adding Q to a Course

• May take existing Q and make it more explicit and
  intentional
• Consider adding Q project(s)

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Premises to Remember

• Choose Topics where Q will enhance student
  understanding of the material
• Math need not be complex
• It is fine to use the same Math over over, but
  in different ways and different contexts
• We are developing habits of the mind

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Sources of Ideas

• Historically significant problems (for field)
• Current Events / Popular Press for the field
• CETL

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Some Useful Resources
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Some Useful Web Resources

• Dartmouth College Center for Mathematics and
  Quantitative Education
• Carleton College Teaching Quantitative Skills in
  the Geological Sciences
• Macalester College Quantitative Methods for
  Public Policy
• Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

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Considerations to Keep in Mind
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Student Background

• Calculator Generation
• Tend to think of Math as formula to get the
  right answers rather than about what the
  information can tell them
• Many of them have taken a lot of Math courses -
  They may tune out that which seems familiar

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Student Attitudes

• A student's interest in Math is more important
  than their own perceived ability in determining
  whether they take a Math course.
• Real life applications make Math more
  approachable and interesting.
• Students like an interdisciplinary approach.

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Learning Principles

• Learners use current knowledge
• Students need to be assisted in learning
  meta-cognitive strategies
• People learn more efficiently with feedback

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Experts vs. Novices

• Experts and Novices store and apply knowledge
  differently

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Experts Knowledge Organization

• rich knowledge hierarchical organization
• notice and remember large amounts of complex info
  after a short exposure
• cue in on major idea needed to solve problem
• knowledge linked to conditions where it applies

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Novices Knowledge Organization

• Info more like a sock drawer with t-shirts and
  shorts thrown in a well.
• Lots of energy spent trying to figure out what
  relevant info they have, tend to focus on surface
  similarities.

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Developing Expertise

• Expertise is acquired over time depends on
  multiple experiences
• Need to teach organization as well as content
• Need to teach principles that underlie equations
  and not just the equations

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Transfer of Knowledge

• Transfer of Knowledge from one context to another
  is neither trivial nor automatic
• It is facilitated by knowing multiple contexts
  where knowledge applies