About Learning

Updated: January 17, 2010

Be a life-long learner!

Start right now if you haven't already.

Why is math important?

"... doing math helps the mind to reason and organize complicated situations or problems into clear, simple, and logical steps."
http://governors.spps.org/Why_is_math_important.html

"The skills that you learn in math courses may be applicable down the line, even if you are not studying to become an engineer or an accountant."
http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Why_Math_is_So_Important.html

"the more you know, the more options you have available."
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52293.html

quoting Galileo: "The great book of nature can be read only by those who know the language in which it was written. And that language is mathematics."
http://www.math.umn.edu/newsletter04/mathimportance.html

"Federal and State policy makers are agreed that the attainment of good math skills should be one of the major goals of the American educational system."
http://www.dessci.com/en/solutions/access/mathskills.htm

"[humans] utilize a complex framework of symbolic reference. In such a framework, words or other symbols refer not only to objects and concepts but also to sequential and hierarchical relationships with other symbols. This process is essential to human mental operations, including language, mathematics, and music."
http://www.crme.soton.ac.uk/biblios/Mathematics_brain.html

Activity: Write one paragraph describing why you think this class is important to your success at college.

Learning Styles

Do people have different hair styles, different clothing styles, different accents when they speak and different personalities? It should not surprise anyone that people have different learning styles.

Activity: What is your learning style? Go to the following web site and take a learning styles inventory, print the results and put it in your portfolio.
www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Negative feelings about mathematics (you are not alone)

Here are some words and phrases that describe the negative feeling you might have about mathematics.

Avoidance, evasion, escaping, dodging, procrastinating

Anxiety, nervousness, worry, concern, unease, apprehension, disquiet, fretfulness, angst

Fear, terror, dread, horror, fright, panic, alarm, trepidation, nightmare, phobia

Reluctance, unwillingness, lack of enthusiasm, disinclination, dragging your feet, bored

Hatred, abhorrence, detestation, loathing, odium, revulsion, disgust, extreme dislike

Activity: Measure how negatively you feel about mathematics by taking a survey of your Negative Feelings about Math.

Study Skills: Step-by-step guidelines to guarantee failure!

  1. Do not attend class and do not listen to the instructor and certainly do not take notes or read the text book, the syllabus or any instructions.
  2. Never set aside time to study, prepare assignments, make appointments.
  3. Believe that you can understand it when someone else does it.
  4. Procrastinate until there really is no time left; it makes it easier to justify plagiarism and cheating.
  5. Rely on other students, especially in group activities, to do the hard work.
  6. Calculators can do almost everything now. Just figure out the key stroke sequence.
  7. Everything else has been done on the internet so just look it up and print it out. That way you do not have to read it, either.
  8. Asking for help is a sign of weakness, thus not an option.

Of course I want you to do the opposite of what I wrote above. However there are no guaranteed methods of success, only methods that are likely to help those willing to work.

Activity: Rewrite guidelines 1 through 8 above in a way that you believe will help you succeed in this class. Put your written guidelines in your portfolio.

Steven Grindle, an adjunct faculty member of the Mathematics Dept at Norwich University created and maintains this web site for his own use to provide educational information to students and associates at Norwich University. No other purpose is intended for this web site. Endorsement from Norwich University is neither implied nor sought.

While I make every effort to provide timely and accurate information, no guarantee is made to either the timeliness or accuracy of the information.