Incorporating Writing into the Undergraduate Mathematics Curriculum
Date
2018-01-26
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Abstract
Writing is essential in almost all careers, subjects, and disciplines. Many mathematics instructors have been using writing extensively in their courses and researchers testify to its benefits. These benefits include facilitating deeper understanding, developing communication skills, and providing instructors with deeper insights into students’ learning and reasoning.
Writing in the math classroom can take a variety of forms including reflective (students reflect on their personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences that relate to the content being learned), expository (students explain complex ideas to non-experts), and excogitative (students explain their mathematical thinking carefully and thoroughly, often coupled with a mathematical proof or computation). In my poster, I documented the writing projects I have tried in my university math classrooms and students’ reactions to them.