Specialty Module: Teaching mathematics: Module Overview

play.png  Watch the following video introducing this module.

Transcript [pdf, 144KB] Links to an external site.

This module's material has been extracted from the Learning and Teaching unit Links to an external site. ('AustMS unit' from here on) offered online by the Australian Mathematical Society Links to an external site. (AustMS). The unit was written specifically for teaching in the mathematical sciences as part of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project to provide targeted discipline-specific professional development. The material is available online through a Creative Commons license. Members of the AustMS may formally enrol in this AustMS unit without charge by contacting the unit coordinator Links to an external site., for example, it could replace one of the electives in their local Graduate Certificate of Tertiary Teaching (or equivalent).

This Specialty Module: Teaching Mathematics is a 'teaser' to encourage participants to access the individual modules of the AustMS unit or enrol in the unit. The material has been extracted from very different sections to give you an overview of what is covered in the complete AustMS unit, which is why there are jumps between the types of concepts being discussed, and why the sections do not build on each other.

This module will introduce you to a selection of important topics – some practical and some more scholarly. They include:

  1. a model of mathematical learning: Skemp’s instrumental versus relational understanding of mathematics;
  2. determining a sequencing for the development of knowledge and skills;
  3. nuts and bolts advice on good practice in teaching mathematics, such as timing the content of your class, and what to do when you run out of time;
  4. the need for relevance when teaching as a service to other disciplines; and
  5. what expert teachers know.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you are expected to be aware of:

  • at least one approach to mathematics learning and how it can inform your mathematics teaching;
  • a range of teaching strategies to manage a situation where you run out of time;
  • the importance of consolidating background knowledge:
    • as the foundation for generating new understanding of mathematical concepts, and
    • to develop techniques for higher order mathematical thinking;
  • the importance of the relevance of service teaching for mathematics and statistics;
  • a range of teaching strategies for service units in mathematics and statistics; and
  • what it takes to be an expert teacher.