数学与应用数学特色专业建设的研究与实践——以合肥工业大学为例

首先分析了数学与应用数学特色专业建设的意义.然后,以合肥工业大学为例,阐述了数学与应用数学专业特色专业建设思路与目标、人才培养模式与培养层次.最后,从以下五个方面:师资队伍及教学团队建设、课程与教学资源建设、教学方式方法改革、强化实践教学环节及教学管理改革等探讨了数学与应用数学特色专业建设的措施与实践.     

信息与计算科学专业社会适用型人才培养模式探讨

信息与计算科学专业是为适应社会经济发展需要设置的新专业.但随着办学时间的增加和社会需求的变化,该专业的人才培养模式出现一些不足,需要进行改革.我们根据多年的教学和办学经验,在分析了该专业存在问题的基础上,从专业定位、专业课程体系改革、实践教学体系改革和学生创业能力的培养等四个方面探讨了如何构建该专业社会适用型人才培养模...     

大学数学数字化教学资源建设的探索与实践

随着计算机技术、网络技术的普及,利用先进的计算机技术、多媒体技术、网络技术,实现校园网络化、资源数字化、管理科学化,即教育信息化,已成为高等学校改革的重点.数字化教学资源建设是实现教学手段和教学方法改革的关键,是实现教育信息化的基础.大学数学数字化教学资源在高等学校数学课程建设和教学中正发挥着越来越大的作用.大学数学课程是高等院校中至关重要的基础课程,它包括大学数学类专业(数学与应用数学专业、信息与计算科学专业)的数学课程和非数学类专业数学基础课程.大学生的数学教育是所有专业教育和文化教育中非常基础、重要的…     

高校数学教学模式改革与数学实验

介绍了我们进行《数学实验》课教学实践的情况和体会,探讨高校非数学专业数学教学模式改革与《数学实验》课关系,并且针对面向21世纪教学模式改革提出一种新方案.     

应用型本科高校数学与应用数学专业建设的探索与实践

分析了应用型本科高校数学与应用数学专业建设的现状,从应用型人才培养方案的构建、模块化教学体系的优化、应用型师资队伍的建设、学生应用能力的培养、实践教学的改革等五个方面探讨了应用型本科高校数学与应用数学专业教育教学改革的方法,提出了明确应用型培养目标、优化模块化教学体系和创新培养模式的专业建设思路.     

“以特色取胜”建设信息与计算科学专业的新型思路与实践

论述了信息与计算科学专业的教育质量观——具有高数学素质、强计算机应用能力、理论与实际紧密结合,具有创新精神,提出了抓定位、建模式、创条件、分阶段、改革与实践相结合的建设方略,并根据我校对该专业的六年建设实践,概括了我校对该专业建设的措施以及所取得的成绩.     

高等院校数学专业解析几何课程改革研究

本文从高校几何学课程改革的一般现状、解析几何课程改革的必要性、课程内容改革和课程安排设想以及相关课程内容及设置时间的处理建议等角度对高等院校数学专业解析几何课程改革做了一定的探讨,并提出了解析几何教材改革的具体内容和结构安排设想.     

大学复变函数课程与高中数学的衔接

分析近二十年来高中数学经历的三次重要改革中复数部分教学内容、要求的变化和大学数学与应用数学专业复变函数教材处理复数部分的状况.在此基础上,给出大学复变函数课程关于复数部分的一些教学建议.     

专业大类教学模式下公共数学课程体系的改革与设计

高等数学课程对实现高校的人才培养目标起着十分重要的作用.在当前按照专业大类招生并组织教学的情况下,高等数学的课程教学遇到了前所未有的问题与挑战.总结近年来我校高等数学课程体系和教学内容改革的实践经验,重新设计了高等数学课程的体系(模块),提出了进行了相应教学内容改革的意见,形成了整体课改方案,并分析了本方案所具有的特色.     

《代数与几何》(偏理)课程建设中的几点体会

1　课程建设的必要性随着科学技术的不断发展 ,对某些专业的科学技术人员的数学修养要求也越来越高 .因此 ,我校于1 999年修订了本科生培养方案 ,并从 99级本科生开始实施分流培养的改革方案 ,对某些对数学基础要求较高的工科专业及非数学的理科专业 ,如飞行器设计与工程、电子信息工程、通讯工程、电子科学与技术、计算机科学与技术等专业 ,实行新的教学体系 .本体系无论在数学教学的内容上 ,还是在数学各分支间的融汇上 ,都对原有工科数学的教学作了一定程度的改革 ,旨在加大数学内容的深度和广度 ,培养、提高学生将来从事科技活动中解决…     

University−Urban High School Partnership: Math and Science Professional Learning Communities

This study focused on science and math professional learning communities (PLCs) that were implemented through a university‐urban high school partnership. These PLCs were part of mandated school‐wide, content‐based PLCs implemented as part of the reform efforts initiated in an urban school to address the school's failure to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for four years consecutively and low graduation rate (less than 25%) for male students. The key issues were (a) students had continually earned low test scores; (b) there was continuous principal turnover; (c) faculty morale was at an all‐time low, and the quality of teaching was very poor; and (d) the students were not effectively disciplined. The study examined the impact that university faculty‐led mandated PLCs have on teachers' practices and students' learning and achievement. Analysis of data revealed practices that were effective in developing and implementing these successful math and science PLCs. Three themes emerged: ethics of care, teacher agency, and aesthetics of professional interactions. Each theme contained key features that appeared to contribute to the implementation of a successful PLC.     

Effective Professional Development and Change in Practice: Barriers Science Teachers Encounter and Implications for Reform

This study focused on two middle schools in the central US who participated in collaborative, sustained, whole‐school professional development in implementing inquiry as part of National Science Education Standards, or standards‐based instructional practices. Participants were involved in their second year of the professional development experience. The research question explored was, “What barriers do science teachers encounter when implementing standards‐based instruction while participating in effective professional development experiences?” Qualitative data collected in the form of teacher interviews and classroom observations were utilized and were analyzed using a barrier to reform rubric. Findings indicate that even with effective professional development, science teachers still encounter technical, political, and cultural barriers to implementation. More support is required for professional development efforts to be successful, such as resources and time, as well as administrative buy‐in and support. Findings also revealed that even the best intended professional development efforts do not reveal and address existing beliefs for all teachers. Implications for future science education reform stakeholders are discussed.     

Institutional Norms and Policies That Influence College Mathematics Professors in the Process of Changing to Reform‐Based Practices

This case study was an investigation of the role of the institutional culture of a university in the process of changing to reform‐based practices for two college mathematics professors. A framework is presented for identifying and analyzing institutional norms and policies that are present and those lacking in supporting faculty efforts toward reform. The primary categories considered in the framework are the teaching and learning context, the professional community, and the university's reward system. This framework is applied to the cases, and findings indicate that institutional norms in the forms of priorities for how time is allocated to professional responsibilities (as part of the teaching context), and colleagues and administrators who understood and shared the professors' goals for reform (as part of the professional community) strongly influenced the professors' efforts toward change. Additionally, a reward system that recognized efforts to improve teaching and learning was critical in establishing a culture that promoted change. However, despite the fact that both professors were in the same mathematics department, the nature of the influence of these factors was not uniform. The institutional culture indeed had multiple layers that required examination for each professor's individual context. The findings help highlight the importance of institutional context for both K‐12 and college level teaching and learning. The nature of these influential factors and the institutional layers were discussed for each case, along with implications for other institutions.     

Teaching Science in Higher Education: Faculty Professional Development and Barriers to Change

The focus of this research was to better understand the change processes necessary for university science teaching reform to be successful. The professional development processes involved faculty cognitive perceptions of learning, teaching skills, and pedagogical knowledge, as well as faculty culture in teaching science courses. A series of faculty development programs were conducted at nine U.S. locations to explore, develop strategies, and implement changes in science classrooms. A review of research and these professional development experiences provided a base to carry out research activities related to understanding change in science faculty. Faculty participants in the program from 30 institutions were selected to be involved in the study. Ethnographic and case study approaches were used to collect and analyze data. Many faculty members encountered in this study had conceptions of the change process that inhibited successful action. These research efforts provide a predictive model for assisting faculty change and help determine which faculty professional development efforts may be successful in overcoming barriers to change in undergraduate science classrooms.     

The Indiana Science Initiative: Lessons from a Classroom Observation Study

The Indiana Science Initiative (ISI) is a systemic effort to reform K–8 science education. The program provides teachers with professional development, reform‐oriented science modules, and materials support. To examine the impact of the initiative's professional development, a participant observation study was conducted in the program's pilot year. Five teachers in grades 3–6 were observed and interviewed as they implemented the ISI‐provided modules. Analysis of the observation data revealed that the teachers incorporated each of the features of inquiry science instruction. However, they did not consistently teach in a way that was aligned with the intent of the ISI. Examination of interview data provided insight into influences on teachers' use of inquiry with the ISI‐provided modules. These data revealed that teachers were aware of the intent of the ISI and attempted to align their instruction. However, teachers were influenced by their perceptions of students' behavior and abilities as well as timing and the appropriate level of teacher control needed to facilitate science instruction. The research suggests that professional development activities should prepare teachers to help learners evaluate explanations against alternatives, connect explanations to scientific knowledge, and provide strategies to address teachers' perceptions of students, timing, and teacher control.     

Science Conference Presenters’ Images of Inquiry

Inquiry‐focused professional development and conceptions of inquiry held by eight professional development leaders were investigated within the context of a state science teacher conference. The prominent session format involved session leaders modeling classroom experiences. In all sessions, classroom inquiry was portrayed as a teacher‐guided activity with the primary goal being to increase motivation for engaging students in classroom inquiry. The leaders’ conceptualized inquiry primarily as a teaching approach with various goals, characteristics, and potential barriers. The findings of this study provide evidence of how inquiry, a prominent feature of science education reform, was portrayed in sessions at a conference sponsored by a state affiliate of the National Science Teachers Association and thought about by persons who led these sessions. The findings have implications for teacher learning from conference‐based professional development and its potential influence on science teacher thinking and practice.     

Contemplating Criteria for Science Education Reform: The Case of the Olympia School District

Proposals for current reform in science education elaborate national standards and a plethora of state-level interpretations commonly labeled as curriculum or learning frameworks. The purpose of this case study was to examine the dynamics of the science curriculum reform process in one of the first school districts to use the Georgia Framework for Learning Mathematics and Science as a basis for their reform initiative. The paper describes the ways in which members of the Olympia School District's Science Curriculum Committee participated in the science curriculum reform process, as well as their personal beliefs about the criteria needed for reform to take place. The results highlight the nature of metaphors guiding reform efforts; the influence of social, historical, economic, and political forces on the reform process; the use of local and professional languages as discourses for communicating about reform; and the complex power relations that influence the micropolitics of reform in the Olympia School District. This study has important implications for other teachers and school districts engaged in standards-based science curriculum reform. It points to the need for reform to include reflection and analysis of the role of teachers in the reform process and consideration of the purpose of science education reform in society.     

Examining the design features of a communication-rich,problem-centred mathematics professional development

While there is considerable scholarship describing principles for effective professional development, there have been few attempts to examine these principles in practice. In this paper, we identify and examine the particular design features of a mathematics professional development experience provided for middle grades teachers over 14 weeks. The professional development was grounded in a set of mathematical tasks that each had one right answer, but multiple solution paths. The facilitator engaged participants in problem solving and encouraged participants to work collaboratively to explore different solution paths. Through analysis of this collaborative learning environment, we identified five design features for supporting teacher learning of important mathematics and pedagogy in a problem-solving setting. We discuss these design features in depth and illustrate them by presenting an elaborated example from the professional development. This study extends the existing guidance for the design of professional development by examining and operationalizing the relationships among research-based features of effective professional development and the enacted features of a particular design.     

A contribution to the statistical theory of linear graduation

Moving (weighted) average techniques provide a flexible tool for the graduation (smoothing) of vital rates. As is shown in the present paper, one may construct linear graduation methods which are superior with respect to some formal evaluation criteria, but such ‘improved’ methods lack an important robustness property which the moving average graduation techniques possess and which is a main motivation for their use.A linear graduation technique is an estimation method, and an important consideration in the evaluation of its properties is the class for which it is unbiased, i.e., the class of functions which it reproduces unchanged. A classical test usually said to be a chi-square test of the goodness-of-fit of a graduation is revealed to be a test of the hypothesis that the graduation method is indeed unbiased for the set of theoretical rates actually estimated, and its properties are investigated along with those of alternative chi-square tests.     

Undergraduate mathematics achievement in the emerging ethnic engineers programme

This paper addresses the issue of collegiate mathematics achievement of underrepresented minority students as it investigates the impact of a cooperative learning calculus programme on the first-year calculus experience of non-Asian ethnic minority engineering students. The Emerging Ethnic Engineers Programme in the College of Engineering at the University of Cincinnati is a successful, comprehensive programme that focuses on the recruitment, retention, academic success, professional development, and timely graduation of underrepresented coloured students. The objectives of the programme are accomplished through three interrelated phases: pre-college science and mathematics programmes, first-year collegiate programmes, and upper-division programmes. The underlying principles of the first-year programme include academic achievement and establishing a strong sense of community among the cohort. This report will focus on the cooperative learning calculus programme that has been successful in improving retention and academic success rates for coloured freshmen engineering students.