“We can never be sure that there is not some wild, untamed piece of mathematics ready to spring out on us … This is what keeps mathematics enchanting.” This is how Jim Neyland, one of the contributing authors to this book, describes mathematics. His enthusiasm and energy are echoed throughout by many of the other writers.
This is a book to delight mathematics teachers at all stages: experienced and inexperienced; specialists and nonspecialists. The authors bring research and practice together to inform, stimulate, and challenge the mathematical thinking of classroom teachers and to encourage them, and give them confidence, to extend their teaching practice.
Topics covered in this second volume of Teaching Secondary School Mathematics and Statistics include: promoting thinking; culturally responsive teaching; students, teachers, and classroom talk; developing analytical thinking; developing statistical thinking; students’ intuitions about probability; developing pedagogical technology knowledge; becoming a teacher; and more. The book is structured to give opportunities for thinking beyond the text through the inclusion of focus questions and points to ponder in each chapter. There are also many practical ideas which are ready for use in the classroom.
It is a valuable resource for those working in pre-service, a marvelous toolkit for new graduates, and it has a place in every mathematics department’s bookshelf.
Robin Averill is Curriculum Leader: Mathematics and Statistics Education at Victoria University of Wellington. She has also taught in secondary schools and written a range of secondary school mathematics resources.
Roger Harvey has taught mathematics in secondary schools and now works in pre-service teacher education at Victoria University of Wellington. He has a particular interest in developing preservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge.