As for using J to teach students (presumably we're talking about elementary to high-school level), I think my exposure to APL in junior high-school (age 13) helped me better understand matrix math concepts when they were introduced in high-school.
On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 10:21 AM, Raul Miller <rauldmil...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 5:01 PM, Boyko Bantchev <boyk...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I also know many people who teach mathematics or informatics at > > school, at different places and certainly to students with average > > (or below) mathematical abilities. My wife has been a school teacher > > in mathematics for years. Neither my experience nor that of all those > > people, or that of our students shows problems with the notation. > > A person may be good at mathematics or similar subjects, or not, but > > this has nothing to do with notation. > > > http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=485225&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D485225 > > "A small experiment in reading specifications revealed that students > already trained in discrete mathematics and the specification notation > performed very poorly; much worse than could reasonably be expected if > formal methods proponents are to be believed" > > > http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327809jls1302_1 > > "Contrary to beliefs held by practitioners and researchers in > mathematics education, students were more successful solving simple > algebra story problems than solving mathematically equivalent > equations." > > > http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/benezet/clement-low.pdf > > "The fact that fewer than 50 percent of these students could solve the > problems indicates the difficulty of translating into and out of > algebraic notation." > > > http://www.physics.umd.edu/perg/papers/redish/talks/aapt96m.htm > > "Some students have trouble figuring out what are variables and what > are constants in this expression." > > > Also of note: > > http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/learning.html > > http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~schectex/commerrs/ > > > http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/27962524?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101429087833 > > > http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/40248161?uid=3739936&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101429087833 > > > > This is supported by observing that, to my best knowledge, notation > > is not among the issues raised in articles, at conferences, etc. > > where the problems of education are observed. > > Hopefully my few minutes of effort here have done something to rectify > this gap in this part of your knowledge? > > -- > Raul > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > -- Devon McCormick, CFA ^me^ at acm. org is my preferred e-mail ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
