Priorities of Teaching Mathematics in Universities
Arkady I. Maron
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Abstract

The research urgency is caused by necessity to build a clear hierarchy of objectives of teaching mathematics for different groups of professions (technical, economic, humanitarian) in Universities. Defining priorities allows focusing on the most important goals of teaching mathematics. In this regard, this paper is focused on the calculation of numerical values of priorities of the following strategic objectives in teaching mathematics: the formation of mathematical competences for the solution of professional tasks; the formation of logical thinking; the education of mathematical culture in teaching mathematics. These are the very goals which determine the mission of teaching mathematics in high school. A leading approach to the study of such problems is a method of hierarchies’ analysis by Thomas Saaty which allows bringing the qualitative (linguistic) expert assessment of the objectives’ importance into the quantitative values of their priorities. The author has modernized this method, organized the process of peer-review assessment of the objectives’ importance in teaching mathematics and first got the numerical values of the priorities, showing the importance of each of the objectives to achieve the goal of teaching mathematics in high school. The materials of the article are of practical value for teachers of mathematics, heads of departments of mathematics and academic managers in higher education institutions, since the hierarchy of objectives allows highlighting of the most important ones in the development of curricula, programs of mathematical disciplines and teaching methods.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 11, Issue 9, 2016, 3339-3350

Publication date: 19 Nov 2016

Article Views: 3652

Article Downloads: 3465

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