Word: algebraical
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Undeterred, he returned to Oklahoma to work on his book and began knocking on the doors of school principals. He managed to convince 20 of them to participate in an experiment that would test his method of teaching algebra against the standard texts. He also persuaded the Oklahoma Federation of Teachers to oversee the experiment and certify the results. In all, 1,360 students participated The control group consisted of 841 who used the regular textbooks, while an experimental group of 519 used Saxon's text-Algebra I, an Incremental Development. In each school the same teacher taught...
...sent off a barrage of letters to the media. William Buckley, editor of the conservative National Review, responded and became a believer. With Buckley's help, Saxon got a small foundation grant and wrote two pugnacious and polemical articles in the magazine about textbooks and the teaching of algebra. They stirred considerable controversy, bringing Saxon a national audience and, eventually, hundreds of letters from teachers and parents curious about the book. Because of the articles and the Oklahoma test results, schools all over the country are now requesting Saxon's book. Fifty schools in Oklahoma have adopted...
Just what is it about Saxon's book that is different? The initial contrast is that the book is written in simple, straightforward, clear prose. In many standard algebra texts, students are immediately confronted by mystifying postulates, like "The reflexive property of equality states that any number is equal to itself...
...exchange the order of the numbers in an addition problem without changing the answer to the problem." According to Gerry Murphy, head of the math department at Hackley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., Saxon also tries to confront two fundamental weaknesses that afflict most Algebra I texts: the lack of a sense of continuity and connection among topics, and student failure to remember the material already covered. Saxon presents the material in small linked units, without the traditional division into chapters. Saxon treats the problem of retention by the obvious and old-fashioned device of a large number of daily cumulative...
...absence of traditional chapters. Others find the book "mechanistic" and too repetitive, and think it might be boring to use in class. Bruce Vogeli, professor of mathematics at Columbia University's Teachers College, sees Saxon's innovations as insignificant and ineffectual: "One can't teach algebra only as a skill. Drill and practice are only part of the problem." He likens drilling to the lowest common denominator of algebra. Mathematical literacy, assert Saxon's critics, is not simply the ability to calculate, but the ability to reason quantitatively...