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Proposal: Mathematics Learning, Studying, and Education

Are we happy with questions about teaching numbers to preschool students? What about questions about teaching graduate courses or advising math Ph.D. students?

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    Why would any of it being off-topic? The level of the question is something distinct from the level of the math involved in the question. You talk about the second usage it seems, I think we should focus more on the first. If some professional or at least knowledgable person ask about teach preschool this is fine, if somebody having visibly no clue what a graduate program is to begin with about teaching of courses there it is off-topic. It is true it should be more likely to get low level q on low level content but still I think the distinction is important.
    – quid
    Commented Jan 30, 2014 at 15:53

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I would encourage questions about mathematics pedagogy and teaching for all age groups (from toddlers to adults), all educational levels (pre-school to graduate), all settings (homeschool to traditional school), and even those with special needs (gifted, with disabilities, etc.).

I don't know if we will be able to attract participants interested in this wide range to this proposed site, but I don't think we should limit the scope at the start.

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I don't think that we should limit the scope at all. I recently had to teach some adult students very basic math concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of integers, fractions, and decimals. It can be a difficult concept to convey to some learners with learning disabilities. It was a challenge for me to find new ways to explain these concepts to help the students that struggled, and I would have loved to have had an open forum to discuss different ways of teaching these concepts.

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Where I go to school the faculty look down on the 6-8 Mathematics PhD students who are doing research in Mathematics Education. Being labeled as "Math Ed" means that you are lower than the lowest first year "Pure Math" grad student who got a B in algebra. I would love to see a group that is open to all levels of Mathematics Education Professionals so that we can help each other assist all students at all levels.

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    When I was in graduate school, some of the professors were actually looked down upon by the students because they had doctorates in Math Education. My opinion on the subject is that there are different levels of math, and some may be easier than others. Yet, the teaching of all these different levels of math all have their difficulties, and I would love to see a forum where math education of all levels can be discussed freely without any ridicule.
    – Jeremy Borne
    Commented Feb 20, 2014 at 16:36

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