Speaker :             Dr. Blyman, United States Military Academy

Date:                    January 24, 2020 (Friday)

Time:                   3:00 – 4:00 pm

Room:                 NS 212C

Title: Achieving, Assessing, and Evaluating Higher-Order Learning Goals in the College Mathematics Classroom

Abstract: Technology has changed the world in which we live. Our students carry phones in their pockets that give them access to answers to all kinds of questions. With this evolution, the requisite mathematical skills of a college graduate are evolving as well. We live in a world full of complex and ill-defined problems.  As college educators, we must fill the vital role of preparing the next generation to solve unforeseeable future problems. While we cannot know what these problems will be, we can be almost certain that solving them will require creativity.

We know that creative problem solving cannot be learned through a single experience, so we provide our students with a blend of experiences. Our Mathematical Modeling and Introduction to Calculus course structure at the United States Military Academy enables creative problem solving through class instruction, during class activities, during out-of-class assessments, and during in-class assessments. We have found that the combination of these elements within our course structure increases student’s creative problem-solving abilities.  We believe that each of these components contributes to students’ gains in comfort with solving open-ended and ill-defined problems like those they will encounter in the real world.

Each of the components of our course – including the innovative assessment technique of Discovery Learning Assessments, the overarching structure of the course, and our rubric for evaluating creative problem solving will be discussed.