Videos of ‘Teaching students to write mathematics’

Back in May this project provided funding to Kevin Houston to convene a workshop at the University of Leeds on Teaching students to write mathematics and make available videos of the sessions presented there. Now the videos are available. First, here’s the workshop description:

Students don’t write mathematics correctly. They throw down a mess of symbols with the answer underlined at the bottom and rely on the examiner’s intelligence to get the marks.
Teaching them to write in a more orderly and logical way has numerous advantages: it makes marking easier; allows students to demonstrate understanding (or not); forces an improvement in their thinking skills. Expressing their ideas clearly and correctly is a valuable skill for graduates in further study, employment and life in general.
At this workshop Kevin Houston (Leeds), Mike Robinson (Sheffield Hallam) and Franco Vivaldi (Queen Mary, University of London) will share practical ways in which they have addressed this in their teaching. You will come away with ideas of how you might adapt your own teaching and resources that you can use to do so.

The videos are available on a DVD. You can download the DVD so you can make your own copy or access the additional DVD extra content online via Kevin Houston’s DVD page. You can view the videos on a YouTube playlist and below.

1. Kevin Houston – Teaching Writing Mathematics

2. Franco Vivaldi – Mathematical Writing: An undergraduate course.

3. Mike Robinson – There’s more to maths than ‘doing the maths’.