Books

This book presents storytelling in mathematics as a medium for creating a classroom in which mathematics is appreciated, understood, and enjoyed. The authors demonstrate how students’ mathematical activity can be engaged via storytelling. Readers are introduced to many mathematical stories of different kinds, such as stories that provide a frame or a background to mathematical problems, stories that deeply intertwine with the content, and stories that explain concepts or ideas. Moreover, the authors present a framework for creating new stories, ideas for using and enriching existing stories, as well as several techniques for storytelling that make telling more interactive and more appealing to the learner. This book is of interest for those who teach mathematics, or teach teachers to teach mathematics. It may be of interest to those who like stories or like mathematics, or those who dislike either mathematics or stories, but are ready to reconsider their position. [SensePublishers, amazon.com]

The AHA! experience is a term that captures the essence of illumination. It is the experience of having an idea come to mind with brevity, suddenness, and a sense certainty. This book examines this extra-logical process within a number of different mathematical contexts in pursuit of three questions: What is the essence of the AHA! experience? What is the effect of an AHA! experience on a learner? Can the AHA! experience be controlled, and if so can it be invoked? The data for this pursuit comes from three related studies focused on three distinct groups of participants ¿ undergraduate mathematics students, prominent mathematicians, and preservice teachers. The results from each of these studies combine to present some surprising conclusions regarding the very nature of the AHA! experience and the profundity of the effect that this experience has on learners and mathematicians alike. The methodology used as well as the finer details of the analysis will serve well anyone who is either interested in gaining a better understanding of the AHA! experience or curious about how to capitalize on the potential affordances it offers as a teaching and learning tool. [amazon.com]

If you have picked up this book, we can safely assume you have questions about assessment in mathematics. That is great, because this book is meant to address those questions. Notice, though, that we say “address” rather than “answer.” This book does not attempt to answer assessment questions in an authoritative, theoretical manner, but instead invites you into a deep, rich conversation with colleagues where the answering of questions happens after reflection and dialogue, and more than likely means that partial answers give way to new questions. We have called the book Questions Worth Asking because this book focuses more on questions than answers. It is a collection of  stories written by actual math teachers in BC who are wrestling with questions about assessment, and have agreed to share some of their struggles and successes with colleagues around the province. We have designed the book to be in the spirit of focused professional dialogue that we know is already occurring for the writers of these stories, and which would benefit the wider membership of the BC Association of Math Teachers (BCAMT). We all have a lot to tell each other, and this book is intended to facilitate such dialogue. [BCAMT]