On 23 Apr 2004 at 8:42, Herman Rubin wrote:
. / . . /.> > The problem is very definitely NOT the quality of available > books; students got good undergraduate degrees in > mathematics 50 years ago. It is what is taught, and to > some extent how it is taught, and what the students are > willing to learn, and their preparation. > > The first time I taught calculus, the proof that the > derivative of x^n with respect to x was taught by induction; > the students all had induction, and they all knew what > proofs were. Interesting. When I was in high school, I made to myself (and solved) the exercise of prooving the derivative of x^n by induction, I did'nt like we were told x^2 and x^3 "could be generalized". Kjetil Halvorsen This is definitely NOT the current situation. > Also, with the now mandatory student evaluation of teachers, > and the students complaints against wasting their time with > concepts (they call it "theory") instead of drilling them on > how to solve examination problems, it is not even possible > to correct this. > > We have to be ready to tell them when they get to college > that memorizing facts and learning how to calculate has > nothing to do with understanding anything, and that they > need to learn the concepts if they are not majors, and > the proofs also if they are. But the other departments > are not willing to go along with this, and want us to > teach their students "all the mathematics they need" in > too little time to even get started doing a good job. > > >Kjetil Halvorsen > > > Courses in how to calculate > >> solutions do not help in understanding anything. > > -- > This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views > are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman > Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: > (765)494-0558 . . > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . > http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > ================================================================= > . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
