Peer Review

Developmental Mathematics: A New Approach

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Sep 14, 2021 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The Subcommittee on Developmental Mathematics (jointly of the Committee on the Teaching of Undergraduate Mathematics and the Committee on Professional Development) has started a web page, a mailing list, and other activities to foster an online environment for teachers of developmental mathematics. Teachers can find suggestions on class projects, course design, syllabi, and forums for discussions on new developments in the field.

Type of Material:

Collection

Recommended Uses:

This can be used as a resouces in teacher training that focuses on developmental mathematics.

Technical Requirements:

Standard browser

Identify Major Learning Goals:

For readers to understand what "Developmental Mathematics" is, both in history, relevance and impact

To provide information on approches to teaching and learning regarding developmental math.

Target Student Population:

College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Mathematical understanding at undergraduate level. Some computer literacy to navigate the somewhat old website

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

This material represents the current thinking regarding developmental mathematics.

Content is appropriate but of limited scope and definition

Concerns:

No facts/data to back up what has been said

Reads like an opinion rather than research. Needs to link to further reading/articles rather than a stand alone page.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

This material can be used to support research on developmental mathematics. It contains potential case-study elements that can be utilizes in mathematics teacher preparation courses.

Concerns:

Limited data used (it refers to 2001) and actively speaks about 2003 as a current time frameNo evidence of what was achieved or how easily this could transfer to another institution

No links to journal articles to support what has been said

US centric - In the UK, Mathematics Development may well go under a different name

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The information is easy to follow and the website is easy to navigate. Also, the article can be printed or shared on social media.

Concerns:

Pages are hard to navigate easily, without going to the home page

Some information dated

Quite dry in the format, just text and some pictures -

Easy to get lost as the review is focussing on "developmental mathematics" which seems to be grafted onto this site rather than it being standalone

Other Issues and Comments:: The content of the material whilst good is very hard to navigate. The web page that was submitted is a single page of information. The search engine highlights more relevant pages but even searching doesn't really help - there's a wide selection of pages that are highlighted but little quality control, -searching for "developmental maths" e.g the second hit takes you to a repeat of the first hit but this is called "test page a", the third hit takes you to "https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/mathematics-for-social-justice-resources-for-the-college-classroom" which doesn't include the word "developmental" in.
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