What's Math Got to Do with It?: Helping Children Learn to Love Their Most Hated Subject--and why It's Important for America

Jo Boaler

Penguin, 2008 - Education - 273 pages

A recent assessment of mathematics performance around the world ranked the United States twenty-eighth out of forty countries in the study. When the level of spending was taken into account, we sank to the very bottom of the list. According to Jo Boaler, who was a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University for nine years, statistics like these are becoming all too common--we have reached the point of crisis, and a new course of action is crucial.

In this straightforward and inspiring book, Boaler outlines the nature of the problem by following the progress of students in middle and high schools over a number of years, to find out which teaching methods are exciting students and getting results. Based on her research, she presents concrete solutions that will help reverse the trend, including classroom approaches, essential strategies for students, advice for parents on how to help children enjoy mathematics, and ways to work with teachers in schools.

The United States is continuing to fall rapidly behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to math education, and the future of our economy depends on the quality of teaching that our children receive today. In What's Math Got to Do with It?, Jo Boaler offers us a new way forward, making this book in dispensable for all parents and educators, as well as anyone interested in the mathematical and scientific future of our society.

Contents

• Acknowledgments vii: 1
• 1 What Is Math? And Why Do We All Need It?: 15
• 2 Whats Going Wrong in Classrooms? Identifying: 31
• Effective Classroom: 57
• New Forms of Testing That: 84
• How American Grouping: 106
• How Girls: 123
• 7 Key Strategies and Ways of Working: 145
• Making a Difference through Work with Schools: 200
• Solutions to the Mathematics Problems: 221
• Mathematics Curricula: 241
• Recommended Math Puzzle Books: 247
• Index: 263

About the author

Jo Boaler is a Professor of Mathematics Education at Stanford University. She was formerly the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Sussex in England and a classroom teacher in London and California. She is a regular contributor to national television and radio in the United States and the U.K., and her research has appeared in newspapers around the world, including The Wall Street Journal and The Times(London). She lives in Palo Alto, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: What's Math Got to Do with It?: Helping Children Learn to Love Their Most Hated Subject--and why It's Important for America
• Author: Jo Boaler
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Penguin, 2008
• ISBN: 0670019526, 9780670019526
• Length: 273 pages
• Subjects: Education / Evaluation & Assessment