I just came across this 1 hour and 20 minute video of Eric Mazur talking about using the Force Concept Inventory to teach physics, advocating “peer instruction”, and presenting data from his courses before and after he changed his instructional techniques.
This is great stuff. My teaching and learning experiences have convinced me wholeheartedly that these ideas apply equally well to mathematics instruction and should be implemented at all levels. Having said that, I also recognize that it can be very difficult to implement some of these approaches in early Algebra, particularly when using an existing textbook that takes a traditional approach…
MathMaine 