Improving General Education Mathematics

Abstract

Before returning to graduate school, William Mitchell taught mathematics in the Chicago City College and two rurallibetal arts colleges. He is now completing a doctoral program at Peabody College, Nashville, Tennessee, specializing in the mathematics program of the small college. Concurrently he is parttime instructor of mathematics at the Nashville State Technical Institute and he also teaches in the University of Tennessee's College Within the Walls at the Tennessee State Prison. Today's general education mathematics course has its roots in the early 1940s [6] . Growing college enrollments and the demands of a new technology called for reevaluation of the traditional freshman mathematics sequence. Several colleges introduced courses emphasizing the role of mathematics in Western history and culture, testing the assumption that these courses would not only be more interesting and relevant to students in nontechnical fields, but would also permit the traditional freshman courses to better meet the needs of the technically oriented students. Despite mixed reactions to such courses, the distinction between users and appreciators of mathematics had been made, and an alternative goal for mathematics instruction had been established [22]. In the post-war decade the advocates of the cultural approach continued to press their cause, despite criticism that their courses lacked sufficient mathematical content. A counter-proposal was made for a unified freshman mathematics sequence which would combine the benefits of the cultural approach with the rigor of the traditional offerings [4]. Strains of both approaches are clearly visible in today's texts.