Mathematical Reasoning for Elementary Teachers

My book was delivered fast and well before classes started. The book itself was in excellent condition. Definitely no complaints. Great job!

Once every two or three years I am pressed into service teaching the course "Fundamentals of Arithmetic and Logic." The course is designed to give elementary school teachers the background in mathematics that they need. This book is designed for that course, which is the context in which I examined it. The coverage is standard for such courses, nearly identical to what we cover in our course. The chapter headings are: *) Thinking critically *) Sets and whole numbers *) Numeration and computation *) Number theory *) Integers *) Fractions and rational numbers *) Decimals, real numbers and proportional reasoning *) Algebraic reasoning and representation *) Statistics: The interpretation of data *) Probability *) Geometric figures *) Measurement: Length, area, and volume *) Transformations, symmetries, and tilings *) Congruence, constructions, and similarity This book has a large number of colored illustrations, which is a big help over the uniform black on white format. I am constantly using multi-colored chalk or whiteboard markers in my presentations for math and computer science. There are a large number of exercises at the ends of the chapters and solutions to many are included at the end. Unlike some other books, there is not a lot of ink expended in covering technological applications. I never use a calculator when I am teaching the fundamentals class and I consider this a positive characteristic of the book. These students need to understand the theory behind these operations and calculators can often disguise what is really being done I do not know if and when I will teach our fundamentals class again, our math and computer science departments are in a dramatic state of unpredictability. However, at this time, this book tops my list of potential texts.

I would recommend this book for anyone intrested in teaching younger children mathmatics. It starts on the basics such as addition and goes through geometery. It is very helpful in reminding adults how to do some basic math that we might have forgot. I used this book two semesters in a row at CSU Stainislaus. There isn't a single Liberal Study major who hasn't used this book. This book has "Highlights from History" that tell you about the people that created the different math ideas. "Hands On" gives you fun math activities to try and pieces from the NCTM standards and many more helpful articles throughout the chapters. This book makes teaching math intresting for you and the children you teach it to.