We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
This chapter is about the role of the teacher in helping students learn mathematics. While that statement may sound rather straightforward, it isn't. That's because what I mean by mathematics may not be the same as what others mean when they think “mathematics.” So, before I discuss the teacher's role in mathematics learning, I'd like to discuss what I mean by mathematics. In order to do that, I'm going to back up even further and discuss a term that may at first seem unrelated to mathematics: literacy. As I hope will soon be clear, understanding literacy is fundamental to understanding mathematics, as well as the role of the teacher in mathematics learning.
Understanding Literacy
When many people think about literacy, they think “reading and writing.” This seems logical; after all, variations of this definition have been with us since the Middle Ages (Venezky, 1991). But defining literacy as “the ability to read and write” (American Heritage Dictionary, 1983) becomes problematic when literacy situations are examined. Does literacy include oral language, as when a group of people discuss a written text, or is literacy limited to an individual's silent interaction with written language? Does literacy deal only with issues related to those disciplines associated with reading and writing, or does literacy encompass other disciplines like science and mathematics? After all, people do read and write about issues like chaos theory, fractals, and the 25%-off sale at the local mall.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
