Springer And the Rest is Just Algebra

This book addresses college students' weak foundation in algebra, its causes, and potential solutions to improve their long-term success and understanding in mathematics as a whole. The authors, who are experts in a wide variety of fields, emphasize that these difficulties are more complex than just forgotten rules, and offer strategic approaches from a number of angles that will increase the chances of student understanding. Instructors who are frustrated with their students’ lack of skills and knowledge at college level will find this volume helpful, as the authors confront the deeper reasons why students have difficulties with Algebra and reveal how to remedy the issue. Review “And the Rest is Just Algebra is a book that addresses the increasing weakness in algebra skills among college students. It not only considers the causes of the algebra deficiency but also offers potential solutions for how to improve students’ long-term success and understanding of mathematics. … Instructors who are frustrated with students’ misunderstanding of algebra will find this book most helpful. … I highly recommend this book … .” (Peter T. Olszewski, MAA Reviews, maa.org, April, 2017) From the Back Cover This book addresses college students' weak foundation in algebra, its causes, and potential solutions to improve their long-term success and understanding in mathematics as a whole. The authors, who are experts in a wide variety of fields, emphasize that these difficulties are more complex than just forgotten rules, and offer strategic approaches from a number of angles that will increase the chances of student understanding. Instructors who are frustrated with their students’ lack of skills and knowledge at college level will find this volume helpful, as the authors confront the deeper reasons why students have difficulties with Algebra and reveal how to remedy the issue. Middle school, college algebra, calculus, and linear algebra teachers can all benefit from this book. Becoming proficient with algebra is a complex task―much more so than it appears to those who were successful the first time around. Furthermore, according to neuroscience studies, manipulating s ymbolic expressions requires considerable cognitive effort even for those who are proficient. In addition, ‘met-befores’ in the form of prior arithmetic thinking can thwart algebraic thinking. All this, and more, is considered in a readable way in this book. Annie Selden About the Author Sepideh Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oklahoma. She earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education at the University of Auckland.  Her research interests are on the embodied symbolic and formal worlds of mathematical thinking with a particular interest on the pedagogy of linear algebra. Over the past two years she has also been working on several projects investigating the mind of working mathematicians particularly in abstract algebra (formal) and algebraic topology (embodied). She is the author of the book Linear Algebra in Three Worlds of Mathematical Thinking, and has contributed to multiple journals and conference publications.