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Introduction to Mathematical Thinking
Keith Devlin
Learn how to think the way mathematicians do - a powerful cognitive process developed over thousands of years.Dear FIX,
The class just went live. Welcome! You have over 51,200 fellow students. I look forward to spending the next seven weeks with you.
For those of you who registered in the last couple of weeks, and hence did not get all my earlier emails, I'll be summarizing the contents on the site.
Keith Devlin, instructor, Mathematical Thinking course
You are receiving this email because inglesagil@yahoo.com is enrolled in Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. To stop receiving similar future emails from this class, please click here. Please do not reply directly to this email. If you have any questions or feedback, please post on the class discussion forums. For general questions, please visit our support site.
Dear FIX,
Our course was featured in an article about MOOCs in yesterday's USA Today.
--KD
You are receiving this email because inglesagil@yahoo.com is enrolled in Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. To stop receiving similar future emails from this class, please click here. Please do not reply directly to this email. If you have any questions or feedback, please post on the class discussion forums. For general questions, please visit our support site.
Dear FIX,
This morning when I logged on to the course website I was the enrollments totaled 50,162. Great to have you all aboard!
-- KD
Dear FIX,
The course site goes live at midnight on Sunday, PDT (Pacific Daylight Time, GMT–7). The Monday session is primarily orientation, to give you an overall sense of what the course entails, and provide you an opportunity to explore the course website.
There is also a Course Survey I would like you to complete. MOOCs are very new, and I think this is the first time anyone has given a mathematics transition course in MOOC format. Because the focus is on the difficult transition from high school math to university-level mathematics, which is very different, I am working with two researchers from Stanford's School of Education, who want to find out what and how people learn in this kind of environment, and in particular how their attitudes to mathematics affect their performance and how those attitudes change as a result of taking a course such as this. This is very non-invasive research. All we ask you to do is fill out an online survey at the start of the course, and then again at the end. It should not take more than a few minutes. One benefit to me, as instructor, is that the results we get can help me improve the course when I give it again next year. You will find a link to the survey on the class home page.
One of the questions on the survey asks you if you are willing to serve as a "Community TA". To make this course work well, I need as many people as possible involved in the online discussion forums, who are familiar with the material. The most likely prerequisite for doing this is that you are either a past or present instructor of a mathematics transition course, or are currently a student in a physical transition course (perhaps taking my course for extra credit, something I know some instructors are offering their classes), which means you have direct access to an instructor and can thus seek expert advice on questions you see raised on a forum. Please consider doing this, and if you are willing, sign up in the Survey.
Enjoy!
-- KD, instructor, Introduction to Mathematical Thinking
Dear FIX,
With just two days to the start of the course, the enrollment has reached 49,664. This is the biggest class I have ever taught. For most of you, it will surely be the biggest class you’ve ever been in. (I know some of you have taken MOOCs with even larger enrollments.) I hope you are looking forward to it. After many months of planning and preparation, I know I am.
Here are some thoughts that I think will help you to get the most out of this course.
There is always a substantial dropoff in numbers in a MOOC, as students struggle to keep up with the course in addition to everything else going on in their lives. Without the support of daily contact with fellow students, it’s really hard to remain motivated. That’s why you will hear me repeating my advice to join or form a study group, ideally a local one that allows you to work together in person, but at the very least a virtual one using social media. Even in small classes at traditional colleges and universities, where you have a ready-made group of fellow students, transition math courses are challenging.
The problem is not that such courses involve hard mathematics. They don’t. In fact, typically they don’t involve much mathematics at all. What causes the difficulties is a feeling that “You don’t know what you are supposed to do!” The reason for this is that when you transition from high school to university, the nature of mathematics changes drastically – indeed most students initially feel it is a completely different subject!
This huge shift in the subject is why universities offer school-to-university transition courses, like mine!
The course you are about to take is typical in that we will start very slowly, and then gradually increase the pace.
On top of the change in the nature of mathematics, many students (I think most) find university level courses much harder to follow than high school courses, whatever the subject. University courses move much faster, and the students are expected to work much more on their own, driven by their own motivation.
There is also a difference in the basic assumption that underlies university teaching. A high school teacher is primarily that: a teacher, who (in theory) has spent several years learning the craft of teaching. At university, the professor is primarily an expert in the given subject domain, and though many put a great deal of effort into their teaching, and take courses in pedagogy, that still remains secondary. The system is built on the assumption that when it comes to advanced learning, it is better to learn directly from the domain experts – the people who create the knowledge that the courses try to impart. It's a good system that's been used successfully for over a thousand years, but it does take some getting used to.
I look forward to welcoming you to class on Monday.
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