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PrecalculusOhio
Rethinking how we prepare students to learn Calculus.

The status quo is unacceptable.

A Common Vision (MAA)

Ohio Mathematics Initiative

The Ohio Mathematics Initiative (OMI) was created in response to a faculty driven review of mathematics learning in Ohio institutions of higher education.

Precalculus could refer to a specific course, but here it refers to the education we provide students prior to Calculus that is intended to prepare students for Calculus.

We have plenty of evidence telling us that we need to rethinking this preparation.

Quick Peek

See about for more details.

Success in Calculus

Memorizing and performing calculational procedures is not success in Calculus. We want students using the tools of Calculus to investigate, discover, and communicate.

  • Remember
  • Understand
  • Apply
  • Analyze
  • Evaluate
  • Create

Bloom's Taxomony Arrows

Bloom's Taxonomy
PrecalculusOhio

PrecalculusOhio is a professional development network for Ohio public institutions of higher education (OT36).

The goal is to help ourselves better understand the preparation students need to succeed in Calculus.

Objectives

  1. Community. Promote a community of Ohio mathematics faculty interested in improving in our students' preparation for Calculus.
  2. Course Materials. Create OER materials that support students developing a conceptual view of mathematics and the reasoning necessary to communicate their understanding.
  3. Professional Learning. Establish a program of professional learning for faculty wishing to organize their clasrooms around these ideas.
  4. Research. Gather data to help make decisions and advance student success in Calculus.

PREPARATION

Calculus is neither a beginning nor an end. It is a level of detail in the story of real analysis. Elementary school children explore real analysis when they compare the change in values of fractions to changes in the numerator and denominator. Calculus extends our ideas of arithemtic from a finite number of pieces to an infinite number of pieces. This is significant transition in student thinking and reasoning and requires a dedicated investigation. Learning to think analytically requires a change in theprepartion we provide our students.

RIGOR

Rigor is not a degree of difficulty. Rigor is a type of communication.

A college version would look something like - Students use mathematical language to communicate effectively and to describe their reasoning with clarity and precision. Students explain how, when and why their reasoning appropriately accounts for all aspects of the situation. Students can answer the question, “How do we know, that we have accounted for everything?”

Goal: A classroom centered around students and their reasoning.

Students do not learn mathematics by watching someone else talk about mathematics. Students learn by participating in the mathematical discussion. We need to help students engaging in mathematical investigations. This means supporting their voice, their writing, their communication.

We need to move beyond telling students and figure out how to get students to tell us.