Conference on Building a Shareable Knowledge Base for Teaching College Mathematics

Brigham Young University, Provo UT

Investigators

Abstract

This conference aims to contribute to increased quality of college mathematics teaching and learning. It will do so by addressing how to generate, store, and share knowledge about effective college mathematics teaching. Participants will discuss the practical and theoretical issues about building a knowledge based for teaching college mathematics. During the conference, approximately 20 participants will begin to develop a formal system for generating, storing, and sharing knowledge of college mathematics instruction. Before the conference, the participants chosen will begin drafting written instructional products and use them at the conference to share instructional knowledge. A main goal of the conference is to elaborate a framework for potential authors of written instructional products to describe what knowledge they should capture and what type of scholarly work can be done to generate such knowledge. The conference includes a draft framework, called “Scholarly Design,” which is based on research and scholarship of teaching and learning. The major goal of the conference is to produce a framework characterizing Design Scholarship in mathematics, illustrated with specific examples of such scholarship. It is anticipated that this framework will help faculty begin to engage in building a knowledge base for teaching in more effective ways. Two additional benefits are expected to emerge from supporting this community of college mathematics teachers as they engage in Design Scholarship to build a knowledge base for teaching. First, college mathematics teachers may consume the published products, adapt them for their students and instructional contexts, and implement high quality lessons. Second, teachers who engage in the process of Design Scholarship will learn about teaching (or how to analyze teaching) that may apply to other mathematics lessons, not just the lesson that is the focus of their work. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.