Internationalizing the University Mathematics Curriculum

This article offers suggestions for achieving the internationalization of university mathematics-related curricular offerings. It presents learning objectives and related student outcomes, raises general issues related to internationalization, and then discusses how to incorporate the objectives and address these issues within the university mathematics curriculum. Specific recommendations include developing a new course, Cultural Aspects of Mathematics, to be team taught by the Departments of Mathematics and Sociology/Anthropology; creating a new Mathematical Modeling course within the mathematics major that includes solving problems from an international perspective; revising the existing Math History course to include more non-Western content; devoting approximately one quarter of the Mathematics Capstone Course to an examination of international and cultural issues; and working to increase the number of mathematics majors who take advantage of study abroad opportunities.

[1]  Munir Fasheh,et al.  Community Education: To Reclaim and Transform What Has Been Made Invisible , 1990 .

[2]  Douglas A. Grouws,et al.  Handbook of research on mathematics teaching and learning , 1992 .

[3]  S H Strogatz,et al.  Random graph models of social networks , 2002, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[4]  P. Clarkson,et al.  Globalisation and Mathematics Education : From Above and Below , 2002 .

[5]  주미경.  수학적 소양 (Mathematical Literacy)에 대하여 , 2002 .

[6]  Paul Ernest.  Epistemological Issues in the Internationalization and Globalization of Mathematics Education , 2008 .

[7]  Ole Skovsmose,et al.  Beyond the Tunnel Vision: Analysing the Relationship Between Mathematics, Society and Technology , 1993 .

[8]  P. Clarkson,et al.  Globalized curriculum or global approach to curriculum reform in mathematics education , 2002 .

[9]  Peng-Yee Lee,et al.  The Mathematics Curriculum: Toward Globalization or Westernization? , 2004 .

[10]  Helen Forgasz,et al.  Internationalisation and Globalisation of Mathematics Education: Toward an Agenda for Research/Action , 2001 .

[11]  Anthony Ralston,et al.  Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics , 1999 .

[12]  Jinfa Cai,et al.  A cognitive analysis of U.S. and Chinese students' mathematical performance on tasks involving computation, simple problem solving, and complex problem solving , 1995 .

[13]  P. Appelbaum,et al.  Popular Culture, Educational Discourse, and Mathematics , 1995 .

[14]  Yoshinori Shimizu,et al.  Mathematics classrooms in twelve countries : the insider's perspective , 2006 .

[15]  Paul J. Campbell,et al.  Patterns of Collaboration in Mathematical Research (Book) , 2003 .

[16]  Ubiratan D’ambrosio.  Socio-Cultural Bases for Mathematical Education , 1986 .

[17]  A. Bishop.  Mathematical Enculturation: A Cultural Perspective on Mathematics Education , 1988 .

[18]  Marilyn Frankenstein,et al.  Ethnomathematics : challenging eurocentrism in mathematics education , 1997 .

[19]  Mark Humphries,et al.  The History of Chinese Mathematics , 2003 .

[20]  O. Skovsmose.  Travelling Through Education: Uncertainty, Mathematics, Responsibility , 2005 .

[21]  P. Gerdes,et al.  Ethnomathematics and Mathematics Education , 1996 .

[22]  E. Gutstein,et al.  Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers , 2005 .

[23]  Lianghuo Fan,et al.  How Chinese learn mathematics : perspectives from insiders , 2004 .

[24]  Thomas W. Judson,et al.  Concepts and Skills in High School Calculus: An Examination of a Special Case in Japan and the United States , 2005 .

[25]  Victor J. Katz,et al.  Mathematics Elsewhere : An Exploration of Ideas Across Cultures , 2003 .

[26]  Didier Sornette,et al.  Predictability of catastrophic events: Material rupture, earthquakes, turbulence, financial crashes, and human birth , 2001, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[27]  M. Closs.  Native American Mathematics , 2010 .

[28]  Roger Howe,et al.  Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics@@@Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States , 1999 .