From the Journals

1. Teaching Tolerance is a magazine distributed free to teachers by the Southern Poverty Law Center in the United States. Articles from the magazine are also available on the law center's website.

In the April 1999 issue of Teaching Tolerance, an article appears entitled “Positive numbers: Math equity programs unlock the gate to algebra and beyond” by David Ruenzel. The article describes the success of the Connected Math Project (CMP), developed at Michigan State University, at a middle school in California that serves mostly low-income minority students, one-third of whom are not native speakers of English.

Two key components of CMP are cooperative learning and the use of real-world math problems, rather than rote learning. Here are two brief excerpts from the article:

By abandoning the "survival of the fittest" philosophy of traditional math classes,
these programs [math equity programs] help group members pool their resources,
drawing upon each other’s strengths to reach a common goal. This interdependence
has the added benefit of connecting students whose different backgrounds or
experiences might otherwise set them apart.

"Students need to learn how to verbalize what they’re thinking about a problem,"
Siegfried [a teacher at the school] says. "They have to be able to express what
they understand and what they need help with."

2. Just out! A special issue of the Journal of Experimental Education on peer
collaboration, guest edited by IASCE Executive Board member Angela O’Donnell. The journal issue is called: “Learning from peers: Multiple perspectives on peer collaboration.” It includes five empirical articles framed from cognitive, developmental, and sociocultural perspectives and two commentary papers from Jon Tudge and Peggy van Meter.