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To increase the participation
and retention of all students in mathematics and mathematics-related
disciplines and to provide all students with a meaningful
mathematics education, ongoing faculty development is necessary.
Colleges should support all of their mathematics faculty as
they grow, improve, learn, and implement new instructional
ideas.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
The American Mathematical Association
of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC) recommends that every college
actively support the professional development of its mathematics
faculty necessary for the improvement of instruction and students'
educational experiences. To facilitate this, colleges should
provide mathematics faculty with:
- reassigned/release time for research
and study;
- compensation for expenses associated
with participation in workshops, conferences, and college
courses;
- compensation or reassigned/release
time for the development of curriculum and innovative
- approaches to instruction; and
- sabbatical or professional leave.
RATIONALE:
Over the past years, AMATYC produced and,
in September 1995, published a set of standards for undergraduate
mathematics before calculus entitled Crossroads in Mathematics.
Realizing that mathematics education is at a critical turning
point, AMATYC made recommendations and provided examples of
ways to change and to improve mathematics education and instruction.
Other documents such as the National Council of Teachers
of Mathematics' Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics
(1991) also indicated a need for change and improvement in
mathematics instruction.
These documents advocate major modifications
in both mathematical content and pedagogy, involving:
- curriculum revision to concentrate
on fewer topics, each of which would be covered in greater
depth;
- technology both as a tool and as an
instructional medium;
- group learning;
- assessment;
- student projects requiring sustained
effort; and
- laboratory experiences involving mathematics.
Colleges should recognize that the time
and effort needed to implement many of these changes are in
excess of the normal professional development that all teaching
positions already entail, and colleges should support their
faculty accordingly as changes are implemented.
Faculty Development Committee
Adopted November 1998
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