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This proposal is now in the Beta phase — example questions are locked!

67 Example Questions (1 closed)

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up vote 5 down vote

added by LePressentiment Jan 31 '14 at 13:02

What do you mean by 'stop attending math lectures'? Drop some course or just not show up for class but try to learn the material differently (not always is attendance required) or is lectures not meant in the sense of part of a course. – quid Jan 31 '14 at 15:23

@quid: Thanks for your comment. I've emended my question. Is it better? Can it be further improved? I had meant to ask how students could learn the material differently while still needing success in the course; they can't drop it. My question assumes optionality of lecture attendance. – LePressentiment Feb 2 '14 at 5:01

This seems like an alright question to me. Thanks for the clarification. – quid Feb 2 '14 at 12:28

@quid: You're welcome. – LePressentiment Feb 9 '14 at 12:37

up vote 4 down vote

added by Geoff Pointer Jan 30 '14 at 1:31

I would have thought this was a common enough issue. I get that my question doesn't mention maths and might therefore seem too general, but there are particular issues involved in a maths tutorial. The last week's worth of concepts from lectures to clarify and a huge number of problems to either provide hints for or demonstrate solutions. Problem: Some students think you go too fast and others think you go too slow. Solution: Go fast half the time and slow for the other half. – Geoff Pointer Feb 2 '14 at 21:15

Would also be a good fit at Academia, but that doesn't mean it's off-topic here. – starsplusplus Feb 18 '14 at 13:15

up vote 3 down vote

added by Phira Feb 1 '14 at 21:38

Why would this question not be adequately served by Math.StackExchange as it stands today? – user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:29

@twirlobite: I do not consider this a flaw of this question, as I understand this proposal to partially be a fork from the Math SE rather than a platform only for questions that are off-topic there. – Wrzlprmft Feb 2 '14 at 9:33

@twirlobite It is a question that would be nominally welcome on both sites, so one reason I posed it here to see how people feel about it. My personal opinion is that it should be welcome on both sites and the choice should be made according to the kind of answers one seeks. – Phira Feb 2 '14 at 18:18

How does this compare to the advice often seen in applied maths texts "Golden Rule: If you cannot solve your problem, try to solve a simpler one"? – Geoff Pointer Feb 8 '14 at 0:30

On Maths.SE one is encouraged to ask specific questions which then attract specific answers with guidance. On the other hand, this is definitely a teacher's question. It's after a list of example questions accompanied by answers to be used as demonstrations, which is just the kind of thing useful to teachers and appropriate for the proposed site and not really appropriate for Maths.SE. – Geoff Pointer Feb 12 '14 at 1:14

up vote 2 down vote

added by Daniel Moskovich Jan 24 '14 at 5:36

Why does this question have a downvote? Is it because it might attract marketing answers from companies? – Daniel Moskovich Jan 26 '14 at 1:36

+1. This seems like a perfectly valid question to me. I certainly would like this site to support questions about good textbooks for math courses, and this doesn't seem far off. – Jim Belk Jan 26 '14 at 6:29

Yesterday someone downvoted all the questions here in a span of a few minutes. – Joel Reyes Noche Jan 26 '14 at 7:35

Recommendation questions are not encouraged at SE sites because they tend to generate opinion-based answers. – starsplusplus Feb 18 '14 at 13:14

@starplusplus And, as there are few absolutes in teaching, is giving each other advice based on our individual experience not recommending? Discussing studies whose conclusions are framed as recommendations supported by probabilities and so on? I'm not trying to convince people that our site doesn't fit the SE mold, but Philosophy.SE, at the very least, doesn't seem to have much trouble being a more discursive site than other SEs. Much of teaching practice is opinion based, this is being discussed in various ways here already - it's not a reason to not go ahead. – Geoff Pointer Feb 18 '14 at 22:31

show 2 more improvement suggestions

up vote 2 down vote

added by Wrzlprmft Feb 3 '14 at 9:31

To examplify this: 98 is ninety-eight in English, achtundneunzig (literally: eight and ninety) in German and quatre-vingt-dix-huit (literally: four-twenty-ten-eight) in French. – Wrzlprmft Feb 3 '14 at 9:38

up vote 1 down vote

added by EuYu Jan 26 '14 at 8:42

This question is too broad in my opinion. Better would be something like: “How do I approach teaching [mathematical subtopic] to a [discipline] student?” – Wrzlprmft Jan 27 '14 at 18:05

up vote 1 down vote

added by Wrzlprmft Jan 30 '14 at 18:13

Inspired by On “familiarity” (or How to avoid “going down the Math Rabbit Hole”?) – Wrzlprmft Jan 30 '14 at 18:14

From this title alone, it would be hard for me to tell what the question is asking. – Mike Miller Jan 30 '14 at 20:55

@Mike: Is it better now? (Anyway, this may be one of the cases where 150 characters do not suffice.) – Wrzlprmft Jan 30 '14 at 21:01

I like this question, but it would be better to name a specific pair of subfields. – Jim Belk Feb 2 '14 at 0:01

@Jim Belk: I think that both, the specific and the general question, have their own right of existence. The inspiring question was, e.g., specifically about general strategies and not specific ones. – Wrzlprmft Feb 2 '14 at 10:02

up vote 0 down vote

added by user89 Jan 26 '14 at 18:52

	Duplicate from M.SE, where it was not well received, even though it garnered a few responses: math.stackexchange.com/questions/650623/… – user89 Jan 26 '14 at 18:53
	Questions similar to this one would be fine. The problem with this specific question is that large swaths of mathematics are arguably about "shape" and "form", which makes it hard to give a coherent answer. It's almost like asking which math books you should look at to learn more about numbers and calculations. – Jim Belk Feb 1 '14 at 23:57
	@JimBelk Quite a few people on M.SE felt the same way, but I ended up having a fairly productive discussion with one of the members (JW) about possible options I could pursue. It turns out, the answer isn't really "all of math", if one is beginning to learn about the field. You can only really start from a few meaningful angles e.g. differential geometry and topology, perhaps from a geometric algebra perspective but in particular differential geometry books that are built around interesting physical phenomenon, you could dabble with geometric algebra itself for an alternative perspective. – user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:16
	@JimBelk discrete geometry (trying to find the analogues to continuous geometry theorems in the world of polygons) etc. the point being that while the answer might someday become "all of mathematics" in your head someday, when starting off, there are some avenues more worth pursuing than others. – user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:19

up vote 0 down vote

added by HarMath Feb 1 '14 at 5:00

I really like this question, even though I don't think a single answer exists to it. Perhaps it would be good to tag it (when the SE finally exists) with "soft-question" and "big-list"? Anyway, to start the thinking off, one might begin to consider what kind of pressures popular media representations of mathematicians/scientists/engineers (thing Ironman (or other Marvel comic heroes), Star Trek, Dr. Who, etc.) might unwittingly (or wittingly!) place upon the young people who consume entertainment. – user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:38

up vote 0 down vote

added by HarMath Feb 1 '14 at 5:23

up vote 0 down vote

added by PLEASE DELETE ACCOUNT Feb 1 '14 at 17:31

This is an interesting question, but I'm not sure what an answer would look like. Maybe this should be rephrased to ask something more specific? – Jim Belk Feb 1 '14 at 23:54

up vote 0 down vote

added by user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:30

This question might be too "meta" for the site, but I wonder if answers to it might serve as a weapon to attract MO members/non-MO folk who are doing research level mathematics to participate in MLE (Math Learning and Education), rather than just students and current educators. – user89 Feb 2 '14 at 2:33

up vote 0 down vote

added by Chris Travers Feb 3 '14 at 8:26

up vote 0 down vote

added by Mark Fantini Feb 3 '14 at 19:58

up vote 0 down vote

added by Fractaliste Feb 5 '14 at 15:13

up vote 0 down vote

added by LePressentiment Feb 9 '14 at 16:44

up vote 0 down vote

added by Geoff Pointer Feb 15 '14 at 4:17

Almost always, in teaching any subject, there are key concepts that if one can find good ways to explain them and get their special significance across the rest follows much easier. This doesn't always involve strictly following a linear progression of presentation. I'm not after a terse text book content presentation but discursive and heuristic ideas for lectures and tutorials. – Geoff Pointer Feb 15 '14 at 4:22

Now, this question could be asked about every fundamental branch of undergraduate mathematics. And, on an up and running SE every one of those questions would entail appropriate and valid separate discussions. I'm presenting it here as a model and have no intention of cloning it. – Geoff Pointer Feb 15 '14 at 4:27

up vote 0 down vote

added by quid Feb 15 '14 at 22:56

The idea that paper writing could be ontopic came up discuss.area51.stackexchange.com/a/13364/101186 whence this question. – quid Feb 15 '14 at 22:58

up vote 0 down vote

added by Joel Reyes Noche Feb 17 '14 at 3:51

up vote 0 down vote

added by JoeTaxpayer Feb 19 '14 at 2:47

up vote 0 down vote

added by Shahab Feb 19 '14 at 2:50

up vote -1 down vote

added by Joel Reyes Noche Jan 24 '14 at 14:50

	I didn't downvote, but I can see the argument that this is more of a question for MSE. The phrase "generally taught" doesn't change this from a math question to a pedagogy question. – Jim Belk Jan 26 '14 at 6:31
	I don't think this is a question about mathematics. The current generally accepted convention is that (in the absence of grouping symbols) multiplication is to be done before addition. What is the reasoning behind this convention? – Joel Reyes Noche Feb 3 '14 at 1:09

up vote -1 down vote

added by Alexis Jan 26 '14 at 13:39

closed as not a real question by Brian Rushton, Robert Cartaino Jan 30 '14 at 3:23

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.

I am a student who gives math lessons to people in high school and I though it would be interesting to know some good methods to be a good tutor. For instance, do you let students solve all the exercices or do you solve one yourself as an example, etc… I think there's also a difference between being a (private) tutor and a teacher so it would be interesting to see the differences in how you approach these two. – Alexis Jan 26 '14 at 13:45

I think this question is too broad. This would be similar to asking "How should I teach mathematics?" I think the question would be better if it were more specific, e.g., advice on a specific area in your tutoring you have trouble with, or something similar. – Mike Miller Jan 27 '14 at 0:25

Yes, we don't have the "too broad" close reason here, but this essentially restates the entire purpose of the site. Too broad to be "answerable" in this format, and this doesn't really help define the scope of this site. It is better to ask about the actual, detailed problems you encounter in your day-to-day work. – Robert Cartaino Jan 30 '14 at 3:26

up vote -1 down vote

added by Mike Miller Jan 31 '14 at 11:01

	Added to see whether or not self-study questions are suitable for the site. I'd say this one would be suitable, personally. – Mike Miller Jan 31 '14 at 11:02
	Without a lot more details this is too vague (I realize it is difficult here to give them). But, especially, merely "for personal study" means very little without specifiying the background and context. – quid Jan 31 '14 at 15:36
	I don't agree that this is too vague, especially as all those details have their natural place in the text of the question itself. However, I've changed my mind that this is appropriate for the proposal: this question would do fine on MSE and there's nothing uniquely about pedagogy here. I'll leave it up for posterity. – Mike Miller Jan 31 '14 at 15:50
	My attitude is that this question would be fine for this site (as it would be on Math SE or MathOverflow), but isn't one of the central types of questions that we're looking for. Something like, "Are there good algebraic geometry books that would be readable for a student who just finished calculus?" is probably closer to the theme of this site, since it focuses less on the subject and more on the audience. – Jim Belk Feb 1 '14 at 23:45