RUME 14 (Volume 4)
2011
Portland, Oregon
READING ONLINE MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS
Page: 195
Many would agree that reading is critical for gaining understanding within a discipline, and that students will not reap the full benefits of their studies if they skim through (or worse yet, ignore) their reading assignments. Even in quantitative disciplines such as mathematics, teachers may assign readings from the textbook with the intent of having students come to class more prepared and giving them exposure to more material than can be taught in the time allotted to class meetings. However, few teachers would be so naive as to believe that students actually read the text, and often complain about the unpreparedness of the students for instruction. On their part, students complain about how hard it is to read mathematics textbooks, perhaps because they lack appropriate reading strategies that might remedy the situation. Indeed, even first-year undergraduate who are good general readers do not read mathematics textbooks well (Shepherd, Selden & Selden, 2009).