How to Teach Mathematics

Third Edition
Steven G. Krantz
How to Teach Mathematics
Third Edition
 http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/mbk/089

How to Teach Mathematics

Third Edition

Steven G. Krantz

Providence, Rhode Island

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 97D40, 97Q60, 97U20, 97U50, 97U70.

Cover 4 author photograph courtesy of Steven G. Krantz.

For additional information and updates on this book, visit

www.ams.org/bookpages/mbk-89

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Krantz, Steven G. (Steven George), 1951-
How to teach mathematics / Steven G. Krantz. –Third edition.
pages cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4704-2552-4 (alk. paper)
1. Mathematics–Study and teaching. I. Title.

QA11.K776 2015
510.711—dc23
2015021663

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To Robert L. Borrelli, teacher and friend.
 Contents

Preface to the Third Edition ix

Preface to the Second Edition xi
Preface to the First Edition xvii
Chapter 1. Guiding Principles 1
1.0. Chapter Overview 1
1.1. Respect 1
1.2. Prepare 3
1.3. Speak Up 5
1.4. Lectures 6
1.5. Questions 10
1.6. Time 14
1.7. Applications 16
1.8. The Moore Method 20
Chapter 2. Practical Matters 23
2.0. Chapter Overview 23
2.1. Voice 23
2.2. Eye Contact 25
2.3. Blackboard Technique 26
2.4. Homework 30
2.5. Office Hours 32
2.6. Designing a Course 35
2.7. Handouts 36
2.8. Teaching Evaluations 37
2.9. Exams 43
2.10. Grading 49
2.11. The Syllabus (and the Course Diary) 52
2.12. Choosing a Textbook 55
2.13. Large Lectures 58
2.14. Problem Sessions, Review Sessions, and
Help Sessions 63
2.15. On Being a TA 65
2.16. Tutors 66
Chapter 3. Spiritual Matters 69
3.0. Chapter Overview 69
3.1. Breaking the Ice 69
3.2. Math Anxiety 70
vii
viii CONTENTS

3.3. Inductive vs. Deductive Method 71

3.4. Who Is My Audience? 74
3.5. Mentors and Neophytes 76
3.6. Teaching Reform 78
3.7. STEM 83
3.8. How to Ask, How to Answer 84
APPENDIX to 3.8: Suggestions for Encouraging Class Participation 86
3.9. Inquiry-Based Learning 89
3.10. The Art of Discourse 89
3.11. Do I Have to Teach Calculus Again? 91

Chapter 4. The Electronic World 93

4.0. Chapter Overview 93
4.1. Teaching with the Internet 93
4.2. Online Learning vs. Classroom Learning 94
4.3. MOOCs 95
4.4. The Khan Academy 98
4.5. The Flipped Classroom 98
4.6. Computer Labs 100
4.7. Clickers 101
4.8. Homework Solutions on the Internet 102
4.9. Online Software 104
4.10. The Course Web Page 105
4.11. Social Media 106
4.12. SmartBoards 107
4.13. Reference URLs 108
Chapter 5. Difficult Matters 111
5.0. Chapter Overview 111
5.1. Non-Native English Speakers 111
5.2. Late Work 113
5.3. Cheating 113
5.4. Incompletes 115
5.5. Discipline 116
5.6. Mistakes in Class 119
5.7. Advice and Consent 120
5.8. Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, and Related Problems 121
5.9. Begging and Pleading 124
Chapter 6. A New Beginning 127
6.0. Chapter Overview 127
6.1. The Role of the University Professor 127
6.2. Closing Thoughts 128
Bibliography 131
Index 137
 Preface to the Third Edition

It has been fifteen years since the appearance of the Second Edition of this book.
A lot has happened since then. The teaching reform movement has become a fact
of life. Many of us have had occasion to rethink how and why we teach. Many of us
have taken time to learn about the myriad of new (often OnLine) teaching devices
that are available today. Among these are MOOCs (massive open online courses), the
Khan Academy, flipped classrooms, clickers, smartboards, and the list goes on at
some length.
Our goal with this new edition is to present a streamlined approach to our
teaching philosophy. Many found the First Edition of this book to be attractive
because it was only 80 pages. The Second Edition was 300 pages. It offered much
more, but was correspondingly more cumbersome. One could easily read the First
Edition during a long lunch hour. The Second Edition represented more of an
investment of time and effort.
This Third Edition will be a slimmed-down version of the key ideas in the
first two editions. We still want to emphasize the nuts and bolts of good teaching:
prepare, respect your students, be flexible, be knowledgeable, be of good spirit,
be a role model, and prepare some more. We have eliminated several sections
which, from today’s perspective, appear to be redundant. And we have revised and
modified several other sections.
The other goal of this new version is to explore many of the new OnLine learning
tools that are now available. Some of these will make little sense to the traditionally
trained instructor. Others will be fascinating, and will give us new ideas of things
to try.
One of the innovations in the Second Edition was the inclusion of ten Ap-
pendices by other mathematicians with strong views about mathematics teaching.
Some of these scholars agreed with me, and some of them (very politely) disagreed
with me. In this new edition, I omit these Appendices. But they are available at
the Web site
www.math.wustl.edu/~sk/teachapps.pdf
These Appendices still have value, and offer many ideas of intrinsic interest. But,
in the pursuit of brevity, we have consigned them to an ancillary venue.
It is a pleasure to thank Lynn Apfel and James Walker for a careful reading of
various versions of this new edition, and for offering innumerable sage comments
and suggestions. Dave Bressoud worked assiduously to bring me up to speed on
everything that has been happening in math teaching in the past fifteen years. I
have Bressoud to thank for much of what is interesting and modern in this new
edition. I also thank my Editors Edward Dunne and Sergei Gelfand for their wisdom
and guidance.
ix
x PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

It is our hope that this new edition of How to Teach Mathematics will speak
to a new generation of budding mathematics instructors, and inspire them to new
strata of excellence in teaching.

Steven G. Krantz
St. Louis, Missouri
 Preface to the Second Edition

“[When a mathematician speaks about teaching], colleagues smile tolerantly to

one another in the same way family members do when grandpa dribbles his soup
down his shirt.” Herb Clemens wrote these words in 1988. They were right on
point at the time. The amazing fact is that they are no longer true.
Indeed the greatest single achievement of the so-called “teaching reform” move-
ment is that it has enabled, or compelled, all of us to be concerned about teaching.
Never mind the shame that in the past we were not concerned about teaching. Now
we are all concerned, and that is good.
Of course there are differing points of view. The “reform” school of thought
favors discovery, cooperative and group learning, use of technology, higher-order
skills, and it downplays rote learning and drill. The traditionalists, by contrast,
want to continue giving lectures, want the students to do traditional exercises,
want the students to take the initiative in the learning process, and want to con-
tinue to drill their students.1 Clearly there are merits in both points of view. The
good news is that the two sides are beginning to talk to each other. The evidence?
(1) A conference held at MSRI in December, 1996 with the sole purpose of helping
the two camps to communicate (see the Proceedings in [GKM]); (2) The obser-
vation that basic skills play a new role, and are positioned in a new way, in the
reform curriculum; (3) The observation that standard lectures—the stock-in-trade
of traditionalists—are not the final word on engaging students in the learning pro-
cess; (4) The fact that studies indicate that neither method is more effective than
the other, but that both have strengths; (5) The new wave of calculus books (see
[STEW]) that attempt a marriage of the two points of view.
The reader of this book may as well know that I am a traditionalist, but one
who sees many merits in the reform movement. For one thing, the reform movement
has taught us to reassess our traditional methodologies. It has taught us that there
is more than one way to get the job done. And it has also taught us something
about the sociological infrastructure of twentieth-century mathematics. We see
that our greatest pride is also our Achilles heel. In detail, the greatest achievement
of twentieth-century mathematics is that we have (to the extent possible) fulfilled
the Hilbert/Bourbaki program of putting everything on a rigorous footing; we have
axiomatized our subject; we have precise definitions of everything. The bad news is

1 As I will say elsewhere in the book, the reformers constitute a heterogeneous group, just

like the traditionalists. There is no official reform dogma, just as there is no official traditionalist
dogma. Some reformers tell me that they strongly favor drill, but that drill should be built atop
a bedrock of understanding. Many traditionalists seem to prefer to give the drill first—asking
the students to take it on faith—and then to develop understanding. George Andrews has asked
whether, if instead of calling it “mere rote learning” we called it “essential drill”, would people
view it differently?

xi
xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

that these accomplishments have shaped our world view, all the way down into the
calculus classroom. Because we have taught ourselves to think strictly according
to Occam’s Razor, we also think that that should be the mode of discourse in the
calculus classroom. This view is perhaps shortsighted.
First, students (and others, too!) do not generally learn axiomatically (from
the top down). In many instances it is more natural for them to learn inductively
(from the bottom up). Of course the question of how people learn has occupied
educational theorists as far back as Beth and Piaget [BPI], and will continue to do
so. But, as I say elsewhere in this book, the mathematics instructor must realize
that a student cannot stare at a set of axioms and “see what is going on” in the
same way that an experienced mathematician can. Often it is more natural for the
student to first latch on to an example.
Second, we must realize that the notion of “proof” is a relative thing. Mathe-
matical facts, or theorems, are freestanding entities. They have a life of their own.
But a proof is largely a psychological device for convincing someone that some-
thing is true. A trained mathematician is taught a formalism for producing a proof
that will be acceptable to his colleagues. But a freshman in college is not. What
constitutes a believable proof for a freshman could easily be a good picture, or a
plausibility argument. This insight alone can turn an ordinary teacher into a good
one. What is the sense in showing a room full of freshmen a perfectly rigorous
proof (of the fundamental theorem of calculus, say), secure in the knowledge that
you have “done the right thing,” but also knowing unconsciously that the students
did not understand a word of it? Surely it is more gentle, as a didactic device,
to replace “Proof:” with “Here is an idea about why this is true.” In doing the
latter, you have not been dishonest (i.e., you have not claimed that something was a
strictly rigorous proof when in fact it was not). You have instead met the students
half way. You have spoken to them in their own language. You have appealed to
their collective intuition. Perhaps you have taught them something. Always keep
in mind that persuasion has many faces.
I have witnessed discussions in which certain individuals were adamant that, if
you give an explanation in a calculus class that is not strictly a proof, then you must
say, “This is not a proof; it is an informal explanation.” Of course such a position
is a consequence of twentieth-century mathematical values, and I respect it. But
I do not think that it constitutes good teaching. In the first place, such a mantra
is both tiresome and discouraging for the students. The instructor can instead say,
“Let’s think about why this is true . . . ” or “Here is a picture that shows what is
going on . . . ” and thereby convey the same message in a much friendlier fashion.
In my own mathematics department we have a “transitions” course, in which
students are taught first-order logic, naive set theory, equivalence relations and
classes, the constructions of the number systems, and the axiomatic method. They
are also taught—at a very rudimentary level—how to construct their own proofs.
Typically a student takes this course after calculus, linear algebra, and ordinary
differential equations but before abstract algebra and real analysis. I think of the
transitions course as a bellwether. Before that course, students are not ready for
formal proofs. We should adapt our teaching methodology to their argot. After
the transitions course, the students are more sophisticated. Now they are ready to
learn our argot.
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xiii

I have decided to write this new edition of How to Teach Mathematics in part
because I have learned a lot about teaching in the five-year interval since this book
first appeared. The teaching reform movement has matured, and so have the rest
of us. I believe that I now know a lot more about what constitutes good teaching. I
regularly teach our graduate student seminar to help prepare our Ph.D. candidates
for a career in teaching, and I have an ever better understanding of how to conduct
such training. I would like to share my new insights in this edition.
One of the best known mathematical errors, particularly in the study of an
optimization problem, is to assume that the problem has a solution. Certainly
Riemann’s original proof of the Riemann mapping theorem is a dramatic example
of this error, but the calculus of variations (for instance) is littered with other
examples. Why can we not apply this hard-won knowledge to other aspects of
our professional lives? Why do we assume that there is a “best” way to teach
calculus? Or a “best” textbook? Teaching is a very personal activity, and different
individuals will do it differently. Techniques that work for one person will not work
for another. (Also, techniques that work in one class will not necessarily work in
another.) I believe that we need, as a group, to acknowledge that there is a pool
of worthwhile teaching techniques, and we should each choose those methods that
work for us and for our students.
Ever since the first edition of this book appeared, mathematicians have ap-
proached me and asked, “OK, what’s the secret? Students these days drive me
crazy. I can’t get through to them. They won’t talk to me. How do you do it?” I
wish that I had a simple answer. I would like to be able to say, “Take this little
green pill.” or “Say this prayer in the morning.” or “Hold your mouth this way.”
But in fact there is no simple answer. Even so, I have invested considerable time
analyzing the situation as well as talking to other successful teachers about how to
make the teaching process work. I have come to the following conclusion.
Students are like dogs: They can smell fear. (I do not mean to say here that
we should think of our students as attack dogs. Rather, they are sensitive to body
language and to nuances of behavior. See also Section 2.9 on teaching evaluations.)
When you walk into your classroom, the students can tell right away whether
you really want to be there, whether you have something interesting to tell them,
whether you respect them as people. If they sense instead that you are merely
slogging through this dreary duty, just writing the theorems and proofs on the
blackboard, refusing to answer questions for lack of time, then they will react to
you in a correspondingly lackluster manner.
When I walk into my calculus class, I look forward to seeing the students perk
up, with a look on their faces that says “Showtime!” In the few minutes before
the formal class begins, I chat with them, joke around, find out what is going on
in their lives. I relate to them as people. It will never happen that a student will
go to the chair or the dean and complain about me. Why? Because they know
that they can come and talk to me about their concerns. If a student is not doing
well in my class, that student is comfortable coming to me. And he knows that the
fault for his poor performance is as likely his as it is mine, because he realizes that
I am doing everything that I can. If you believe what I am describing here, then
perhaps you can also understand why I enjoy teaching, and why I find the process
both stimulating and fulfilling.
xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

I recently taught a fairly rigorous course in multivariable calculus—a subject

in which students usually have a lot of trouble. The main reason that they have so
much trouble is that there are so many ideas—vectors, cross products, elements of
surface area, orientation, conservative vector fields, line integrals, tangent planes,
etc.—and they are all used together. Just understanding how to calculate both
sides of the equation in Stokes’s theorem, or the divergence theorem, requires a
great deal of machinery. The way that I addressed their difficulties is that I worked
the students hard. I gave long, tough homework assignments. A day or two before
any given assignment was due, I would begin a class discussion of the homework.
If necessary, I would work out the bulk of a problem on the board for them. But
I would add that I expected each of them to write up the problem carefully and
completely—with full details. And I would give them a few extra days so that they
could complete the assignment. But I did not stop there. Next class, I would ask
how the homework was going. If necessary, we would discuss it again. If necessary, I
would give them another extension. The point here is that I made it absolutely clear
to the students that the most important thing to me was that they would complete
the assignment. I would give them whatever time, and whatever help, was needed
to complete the work. During the long fifteen-week semester, attendance in the
class was virtually constant, and always exceeded 95%. At the end, I gave them a
long, tough final exam. And the average was 85%. I can only conclude that I set a
standard for these students, and they rose to it. Both they and I came away from
the course with a feeling of success. They had worked hard, and they had learned
something.
You may be thinking, “Well, Krantz teaches at a fancy private school with
fancy private students. I could never get away with this at Big State University.”
That is a defeatist attitude. If you expect your students to try, then you must try.
I have taught at big state universities. I understand the limitations that teaching
a large class of not particularly select students imposes. But you can adjust the
techniques described in the last paragraph to most any situation. If you wonder
how I can afford to spend valuable class time going over homework, my answer is
this: I am an experienced teacher, and fourteen weeks is a long time. I can always
adjust future classes, leave out a few examples, give short shrift to some ancillary
topics. I never worry about running out of time.
I have gone on at some length in this Preface to give the uninitiated reader
a glimpse of where I am coming from. I hope that on this basis you can decide
whether you want to read the remainder of the book. This is a self-help book in
the strongest sense of the word. It is a kit that will allow you to build your own
teaching methodology and philosophy. I certainly cannot do it for you. What I can
do is provide you with some tips, and advice, and the benefit of my own experience.
Nothing that I say here is “correct” in any absolute sense. It is just what I know.
One of my disappointments pursuant to the first edition of this book is that
nobody has taken it as an impetus to write his own book espousing his own teaching
philosophy. There have been some reviews of this book—several of them rather
strong and critical both of the book and of its author (see [MOO], [BRE1]).
I welcome such discussions, and would only like to see further discourse. I am
delighted to be able to say that several distinguished scholars, who have been
active in exploring and discussing teaching issues, have agreed to write Appendices
to this new edition of How to Teach Mathematics. Let me stress that these are
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xv

not all people who agree with me. In fact some of us have had spirited public
disagreements. But we all share some common values. We want to discover how
best to teach our students. The new Appendices help to balance out the book, and
to demonstrate that any teaching question has many valid answers.
When I teach the teaching seminar for our graduate students, the first thing I
tell them is this: “In this course, I am not going to tell you how to teach. You have
to decide that for yourselves. What I intend to do is to sensitize you to certain
issues attendant to teaching. Then you will have the equipment so that you can
build your own teaching philosophy and style.” I would like to suggest that you
read this book in the same spirit. You certainly need not agree with everything I
say. But I hope you will agree that the issues I discuss are ones that we all must
consider as we learn how to teach.
When I was a graduate student—in one of the best math graduate programs
in the country—I never heard a single word about teaching. Actually, that’s not
true. Every once in a while we would be talking about mathematics and someone
would look at his watch and say, “Damn! I have to go teach.” But that was the
extent of it. Six years after I received my PhD, I returned to that same Ivy League
school as a visiting faculty member. Times had changed, and one of the senior
faculty members gave a twenty-minute pep talk to all new instructors. He said,
“These days, you can either prove the Riemann hypothesis or you can learn how
to teach.” He went on to tell us to speak up during lectures, and to write neatly
on the blackboard. This was not the most profound advice on teaching that I have
ever heard, but it certainly represented progress.
The truth is that, as a graduate student, I was so hellbent on learning to be
a mathematician that I probably gave little thought to teaching. I would have felt
quite foolish knocking on my thesis advisor’s door and asking his advice on how to
teach the chain rule. I shudder to think what he might have replied. But we have
all evolved. It makes me happy that my own graduate students frequently consult
me on (i) mathematics, (ii) teaching, and (iii) the profession. Though I secretly
may relish (i) a bit more than (ii) or (iii), I do enjoy all three.
Teaching is an important part of what we do. Because of economic stringencies,
and new societal values, university administrations are monitoring every depart-
ment on campus to ensure that the teaching is (better than) adequate and is work-
ing. My university is known nationwide for its good teaching. Yet an experienced
administrator here said recently that 80% of the tenured faculty (campus-wide)
could not get tenure today on the basis of their teaching.
We simply cannot get away with the carelessness that was our hallmark in
the past. Thanks in part to the teaching reform movement, we have all come to
understand this change in values, and we are beginning to embrace it. A book like
[CAS], which offers advice to a fledgling instructor, could not have existed twenty
years ago. Now it is a valuable part of our literature.
Teaching is a regimen that we spend our entire lives learning and revising and
honing to a sharp skill. This book is designed to help you in that pursuit.
I am happy to acknowledge the advice and help that I have received from
many friends and colleagues in the preparation of this new edition. I would like
particularly to mention Joel Brawley, David Bressoud, Robert Burckel, John B.
Conway, Ed Dubinsky, Len Gillman, David Hoffman, Gary Jensen, Meyer Jerison,
Kristen Lampe, Vladimir Maşek, Chris Mahan, Deborah K. Nelson, Hrvoje Sikic,
xvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Nik Weaver, Stephen Zemyan, and Steven Zucker. Lynn Apfel was good enough
to read several drafts of this manuscript with painstaking care, and to share with
me her cogent insights about teaching; I am most grateful for her contributions.
Jennifer Sharp of the American Mathematical Society gave me the benefit both of
her editing skills and of her knowledge of language and meaning. Her help has been
invaluable.
Last, but not least, Josephine S. Krantz is a constant wellspring of inspiration;
her Mom, Randi Ruden, is a source of solace.
Of course the responsibility for all remaining errors or foolishness resides en-
tirely with me.
Steven G. Krantz
St. Louis, Missouri
 Preface to the First Edition

While most mathematics instructors prepare their lectures with care, and en-
deavor to do a creditable job at teaching, their ultimate effectiveness is shaped
by their attitudes. As an instructor ages (and I speak here of myself as much as
anyone), he finds that he is less in touch with his students, that a certain ennui
has set in, and (alas) perhaps that teaching does not hold the allure and sparkle
that it once had. Depending on the sort of department in which he works, he may
also feel that hotshot researchers and book writers get all the perks and that “mere
teachers” are viewed as drones.
As a result of this fatigue of enthusiasm, a professor will sometimes prepare for a
lecture not by writing some notes or by browsing through the book but by lounging
in the coffee room with his colleagues and bemoaning (a) the shortcomings of the
students, (b) the shortcomings of the text, and (c) that professors are overqualified
to teach calculus. Fortified by this yoga, the professor will then proceed to his
class and give a lecture ranging from dreary to arrogant to boring to calamitous.
The self-fulfilling prophecy having been fulfilled, the professor will finally join his
cronies for lunch and be debriefed as to (a) the shortcomings of the students, (b)
the shortcomings of the text, and (c) that professors are overqualified to teach
calculus.
There is nothing new in this. The aging process seems to include a growing
feeling that the world is going to hell on a Harley. A college teacher is in continual
contact with young people; if he feels ineffectual or alienated as a teacher, then the
unhappiness can snowball.
Unfortunately, the sort of tired, disillusioned instructors that I have just de-
scribed exist in virtually every mathematics department. A college teacher who
just doesn’t care anymore is a poor role model for the novice instructor. Yet that
novice must turn somewhere to learn how to teach. You cannot learn to play the
piano or to ski by watching someone else do it. And the fact of having sat in a
classroom for most of your life does not mean that you know how to teach.
The purpose of this book is to set down the traditional principles of good teach-
ing in mathematics—as viewed by this author. While perhaps most experienced
mathematics instructors would agree with much of what is in this book, in the final
analysis this tract must be viewed as a personal polemic on how to teach.
Teaching is important. University administrations, from the top down, are to-
day holding professors accountable for their teaching. Both in tenure and promotion
decisions and in the hiring of new faculty, mathematics (and other) departments
must make a case that the candidate is a capable and talented teacher. In some
departments at Harvard, a job candidate must now present a “teaching dossier” as
well as an academic dossier. It actually happens that good mathematicians who

xvii
xviii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

are really rotten teachers do not get that promotion or do not get tenure or do not
get the job that they seek.
The good news is that it requires no more effort, no more preparation, and
no more time to be a good teacher than to be a bad teacher. The proof is in this
book. Put in other words, this book is not written by a true believer who is going
to exhort you to dedicate every waking hour to learning your students’ names and
designing seating charts. On the contrary, this book is written by a pragmatist who
values his time and his professional reputation, but is also considered to be rather
a good teacher.
I intend this book primarily for the graduate student or novice instructor
preparing to sally forth into the teaching world; but it also may be of some in-
terest to those who have been teaching for a few or even for several years. As with
any endeavor that is worth doing well, teaching is one that will improve if it is
subjected to periodic re-examination.
Let me begin by drawing a simple analogy: By the time you are a functioning
adult in society, the basic rules of etiquette are second nature to you. You know
instinctively that to slam a door in someone’s face is (i) rude, (ii) liable to invoke
reprisals, and (iii) not likely to lead to the making of friends and the influencing
of people. The keys to good teaching are at approximately the same level of ob-
viousness and simplicity. But here is where the parallel stops. We are all taught
(by our parents) the rules of behavior when we are children. Traditionally, we (as
mathematicians) are not taught anything, when we are undergraduate or graduate
students, about what constitutes sound teaching.
In the past we have assumed that either

(i) Teaching is unimportant.

or
(ii) The components of good teaching are obvious.
or
(iii) The budding professor has spent a lifetime sitting in front of professors
and observing teaching, both good and bad; surely, therefore, this person has made
inferences about what traits define an effective teacher.

I have already made a case that (i) is false. I agree wholeheartedly with (ii).
The rub is (iii). If proof is required that at least some mathematicians have given
little thought to exposition and to teaching, then think of the last several colloquia
that you have heard. How many were good? How many were inspiring? This is
supposed to be the stuff that matters—getting up in front of our peers and touting
our theorems. Why is it that people who have been doing it for twenty or thirty
years still cannot get it right? Again, the crux is item (iii) above. There are some
things that we do not learn by osmosis. How to lecture and how to teach are among
these.
Of course the issue that I am describing is not black and white. If there were
tremendous peer support in graduate school and in the professorial ranks for great
teaching, then we would force ourselves to figure out how to teach well. But often
there is not. The way to make points in graduate school is to ace the qualifying
exams and then to write an excellent thesis. It is unlikely that your thesis advisor
 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xix

wants to spend a lot of time with you chatting about how to teach the chain
rule. After all, he has tenure and is probably more worried about where his next
theorem or next grant or next raise is coming from than about such prosaic matters
as calculus.
The purpose of this book is to prove that good teaching requires relatively
little effort (when compared with the alternative), will make the teaching process a
positive part of your life, and can earn you the respect of your colleagues. In large
part I will be stating the obvious to people who, in theory, already know what I
am about to say.
It is possible to argue that we are all wonderful teachers, simply by fiat, but
that the students are too dumb to appreciate us. Saying this, or thinking it, is
analogous to proposing to reduce crime in the streets by widening the sidewalks.
It is doubletalk. If you are not transmitting knowledge, then you are not teaching.
We are not hired to train the ideal platonic student. We are hired to train the
particular students who attend our particular universities. It is our duty to learn
how to do so.
This is a rather personal document. After all, teaching is a rather personal
activity. But I am not going to advise you to tell jokes in your classes, or to tell
anecdotes about mathematicians, or to dress like Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
when you teach the product rule. Many of these techniques only work for certain
individuals, and only in a form suited to those individuals. Instead I wish to distill
out, in this book, some universal truths about the teaching of mathematics. I also
want to go beyond the platitudes that you will find in books about teaching all
subjects (such as “type all your exams”, “grade on a bell-shaped curve”) and talk
about issues that arise specifically in the teaching of mathematics. I want to talk
about principles of teaching that will be valid for all of us.
My examples are drawn from the teaching of courses ranging from calculus to
real analysis and beyond. Lower-division courses seem to be an ideal crucible in
which to forge teaching skills, and I will spend most of my time commenting on
those. Upper-division courses offer problems of their own, and I will say a few
words about those. Graduate courses are dessert. You figure out how you want to
teach your graduate courses.
There are certainly differences, and different issues, involved in teaching every
different course; the points to be made in this book will tend to transcend the seams
and variations among different courses. If you do not agree in every detail with
what I say, then I hope that at least my remarks will give you pause for thought.
In the end, you must decide for yourself what will take place in your classroom.
There is a great deal of discussion these days about developing new ways to
teach mathematics. I’m all for it. So is our government, which is generously fund-
ing many “teaching reform” projects. However, the jury is still out regarding which
of these new methods will prove to be of lasting value. It is not clear yet exactly
how Mathematica notebooks or computer algebra systems or interactive computer
simulations should be used in the lower-division mathematics classroom. Given
that a large number of students need to master a substantial amount of calculus
during the freshman year, and given the limitations on our resources, I wonder
whether alternatives to the traditional lecture system—such as, for instance, So-
cratic dialogue—are the correct method for getting the material across. Every good
xx PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

new teaching idea should be tried. Perhaps in twenty years some really valuable
new techniques will have evolved. They do not seem to have evolved yet.
In 1993 I must write about methods that I know and that I have found to
be effective. Bear this in mind: Experimental classes are experimental. They
usually lie outside the regular curriculum. It will be years before we know for sure
whether students taught with the new techniques are understanding and retaining
the material satisfactorily and are going on to successfully complete their training.
Were I to write about some of the experimentation currently being performed then
this book would of necessity be tentative and inconclusive.
There are those who will criticize this book for being reactionary. I welcome
their remarks. I have taught successfully, using these methods, for twenty years.
Using critical self examination, I find that my teaching gets better and better, my
students appreciate it more, and (most importantly) it is more and more effective. I
cannot in good conscience write of unproven methods that are still being developed
and that have not stood the test of time. I leave that task for the advocates of
those methods.
In fact I intend this book to be rather prescriptive. The techniques that I
discuss here are ones that have been used for a long time. They work. Picasso’s
revolutionary techniques in painting were based on a solid classical foundation.
By analogy, I think that before you consider new teaching techniques you should
acquaint yourself with the traditional ones. Spending an hour or two with this book
will enable you to do so.
I am grateful to the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education
for support during a part of the writing of this book. Randi D. Ruden read much
of the manuscript critically and made decisive contributions to the clarity and pre-
cision of many passages. Josephine S. Krantz served as a valuable assistant in this
process. Bruce Reznick generously allowed me to borrow some of the ideas from
his book Chalking It Up. I also thank Dick Askey, Brian Blank, Bettye Anne Case,
Joe Cima, John Ewing, Mark Feldman, Jerry Folland, Ron Freiwald, Paul Halmos,
Gary Jensen, John McCarthy, Alec Norton, Mark Pinsky, Bruce Reznick, Richard
Rochberg, Bill Thurston, and the students in our teaching seminar at Washing-
ton University for many incisive remarks on different versions of the manuscript.
The publications committees of the Mathematics Association of America and of
the American Mathematical Society have provided me with detailed reviews and
valuable advice for the preparation of the final version of this book.
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 Index

accents, foreign, 111 avoidance, 128

actors to advise teachers, 24
advice, 120 bag of tricks, 28
advice and consent, 120 Banchoff, T., 38, 125
Aegean stables, shoveling, 91 befriending students, 120
alarms on wrist watches, 15 begging, 124
American students vs. foreign students, 112 behavioral problems, nipping in bud, 117
American vs. European classroom style, being clear, 29
112 being too clear, 29
Amherst project, 17 biology students, needs of, 75
anecdote, telling of an, 26 blackboard
anxiety and mathematics, 70 common errors in technique, 29
applications, 16 dividing, 27
as an appendage, 19 erasing, 28
as an integral part of the mathematics, sending students to the, 86
18 students at the, 10
brief, 18 technique, 26
disingenuous, 18 writing on, 28
in a calculus class, 17 blackboards
keeping a file of, 17 placing material on, 27
not credible, 18 sliding, 27
perspective on, 17 Boas, R., 72
short, 18 body language, 39
telling students about, 16 body, using your, 23
time management of, 18 boring people vs. interesting people, 26
too complex, 17 Bosch, H., 117
trivial, 18 Bosch, Heironymous, 117
up-to-date, 17 Bourbaki, N., 72
argument, teaching to students, 79 boxes, dividing blackboard into, 27
Aristotelian rhetoric, 8 breaking the ice, 69
arranging material on blackboard, 27 breaking the ice, techniques for, 70
art as sexual harassment, 122 bribes, 124
Asian students, success of, 31 bribes, receptivity to, 124
attitude problem, 118 British educational system, discourse in, 79
attrition vs. content vs. content vs. business school, dealing with, 75
self-esteem, 81 business students, needs of, 75
audience, 43 business students, teaching, 75
feedback, 40 buzzers and bells in the classroom, 15
respect for, 2
sense of, 35, 75 cajoling, 25, 85
sensitivity to, 76 calculations, skipping, 18
authority, being an, 117 calculus
availability of professor after class, 61 as a “filter”, 7
avoid delicate topics, 120 as a service course, 75

137
138 INDEX

attrition rate, 78 compromising situations, 124

cooperative teaching with business computer labs, 10
school, 75 concerts, rock, 117
dropout rate, 78 conditionally convergent series, 73
failure rate, 78 confederate, use of in keeping discipline,
forestry school version, 75 117
reform, 78 confidence, 4
teaching of, 91 confidence and eye contact, 26
Cambridge University, 79 consequences of not preparing, 4
Cargal, J., 72 consultations outside of office hour, 34
Carlyle, Thomas, 4 contact hours in reform, 9
CD-ROM texts, 57 content vs. motivation, 81
CD-ROM texts, liabilities of, 58 content vs. self-esteem vs. empowerment
Chair’s admonition, 127 vs. attrition, 81
cheaters continuity of a function, 55
and the Director of Undergraduate conversation vs. teaching, 26
Studies, 114 conversationalists, gifted, 25
catching, 113, 115 correcting mistakes, students comfortable
defense against, 114 with, 119
dishonesty of, 113 course
handling, 114 advanced topics, 35
pitfalls in handling, 115 as a prerequisite, 35
policy against, 113 challenging a, 51
rights of, 114 design of, 35
cheating, 113 designing a, 35
best defense is offense, 114 diary, 54
other students’ reactions to, 113 evaluation techniques, 41
planning against, 115 key ideas in, 35
Chicago, University of, 127 killing a, 35
Chippendale’s, 122 lousing up, 35
Churchill, W., 111 outline, 35
class outline for, 35
as dialogue with students, 3 planning a, 36
beyond control, 117 service, 35
breaking the ice with, 69 structure of, 35
early departures from, 118 cowardice, 128
late arrivals to, 118 critical thinking skills, 90
regimen in, 70 critical thinking, teaching to students, 79
turning into a working group, 69 critical thought, modes of, 90
classes criticizing colleagues, 120
powerful effects of, 95 curiosity, kindling student, 25
significance of, 94
spiritual importance of, 94 Dalai Lama, 12
classroom death in the family, 113
as the venue for all learning, 8 debriefing after class, 5
as the venue where all learning takes debriefing yourself, 5
place, 8 deductive
pandemonium, 117 learning, 71
working against you, 23 method of learning, 71
collaboration, importance of in student vs. inductive method, 71
success, 31 demanding respect vs. commanding
commanding respect vs. demanding respect, 118
respect, 118 departmental reputation hinging on key
comments on exams, 46 courses, 91
communicating, 1 derivatives, commutation of, 72
communication, 8 desk, crawling under, 34
complaints of sexual harassment, 123 desperate students, 124
complex, from the simple to the, 73 Diaconis, P., 78
 INDEX 139

diary for the course, 54 with too much difficult algebra, 47

Digital Library of Mathematical Functions, example
104 bailing out of, 119
dignity, losing your, 23 getting out of control, 119
disciplinary measures, stern, 117 setting of for students, 120
discipline, 116 examples, 5
discipline problems, handling in advance, finding good ones, 5
117 teaching with, 72
discipline, maintaining, 118 exams, 43
discourse, 113 as a tool for communication, 44
art of, 90 as a tool for monitoring the course, 46
teaching students, 79 as a tool to train students, 46
discussions, group, 8 as an aid to focusing student attention,
disruptions, 116 44
disruptions, handling, 116 avoiding algebraic complications on, 45
DLMF, 104 bad, 45
Douglas, R., 78 composing, 46
dress appropriately, 1 consistency in grading, 47, 48
dropping grades, 113 consultation with students over, 49
Dubinsky, E., 9, 82 designing, 43
effective, 43
early departures from class, 116 expeditious returning of, 48
easy, making things look, 25 gamesmanship on, 45
easy, students concluding that material is, good, 43, 45
25 grading, 47
eating in class, 116 grading and returning on time, 48
educational theory, 128 handwritten vs. word processed, 43
eigenvalue asymptotics, 16 homework questions on, 44
empowerment vs. attrition vs. content vs. horizontal grading of, 48, 62
self-esteem, 81 in a small class, 46
engagement, responsibility for, 9 in class and out, 47
engaging the attention of the audience, 26 in small classes, 46
engaging the students in the material, 81 indexed against homework, 31
English as a second language, 111 interconnected questions on, 47
enthusiasm, experiment with, 39 liabilities of multiple choice, 46
equations, labeling, 27 minimalist, 43
erasing and keeping material during misjudging, 47
lecture, 28 multiple choice, 45
erasing thoroughly, 28 multiple choice vs. written out, 45
erf, 103 partial credit on, 45
errors in homework, 30 point values of questions on, 47
evaluation of grade by student, 124 posting solutions for, 49
“Evaluation of Course Overall, 42 practice, 46, 47
“Evaluation of Instructor Overall”, 42 returning at end of hour, 48
exam returning to students, 48
as a repository for ancillary theorems, 44 revealing questions on, 44
as a tool for engaging students in the review sessions for, 46
learning process, 45 short answer questions on, 46
cramming for an, 51 solutions for practice, 47
giving a hairy, 44 solving problems in class, 49
length of, 16 statistics on, 48
misjudging, 47 straightforward, 44
poor performance on, 124 straightforward questions on, 44
questions broken into steps, 47 student questions on, 48
questions, point values of, 47 surprises on, 44
questions, students getting to the answer take-home, 47
on, 45 too complex, 47
time for, 16 too hard, 43
140 INDEX

too long, 47 autonomy of instructor in, 52

vertical grading of, 48, 62 departmental policies toward, 52
worked in advance by the instructor, 45 evenhanded practice of, 49
working out in advance, 47 explained in syllabus, 49
working solutions in class, 48 explaining method to students, 49
written, 45 horizontal, 48
exams, contents of, 43 making changes in, 51
exception, one snowballing into many, 113 on a curve, 49
extra material to fill time, 14 organic approach to, 50
eye contact, 25, 26 practices, explaining to students, 50
eye contact and confidence, 26 running afoul of departmental policies, 51
eye contact, cultivating, 26 schemes for fairness, 49
eyes, using your, 23 statistics for, 50
student complaints about, 49, 52
faculty involvement in students’ personal
taking into account student
lives, 121
improvement, 51
faculty offering a curriculum, 91
vertical, 48
faking it, 14
graphing in three dimensions, 28
Father Guido Sarducci’s Five Minute
Green’s theorem, 73
University, 90
Green’s theorem and planar area, 19
figures
Green’s theorem, applications of, 19
drawing difficult, 28
grieving a grade, 52
drawing for students, 27
group activities, 31
in lectures, 27
group discussion, 8, 125
practicing, 27
group work, evaluation of, 32
showing students how to draw, 28
guest instructors, 87
fill the room with yourself, 23
guest speakers from government, 88
finishing early, 24
guest speakers from industry, 88
Five Minute University, Father Guido
Sarducci’s, 90
Halmos, P., 73
Fourier analysis, 16
Halmos, Paul, 73
Frederick’s of Hollywood, 122
ham, being a, 6
friendship between students and faculty,
hand calculation vs. machine calculation,
120
10
fundamental theorem of algebra, 73
handouts, 36
explaining, 73
as a supplement to the lecture, 36
Gauss, C. F., 74 as a supplement to the text, 36
getting students excited about learning, 25 student reaction to, 36
getting through to your class, 6 handshakes, prolonged, 122
getting to know students, 34 handwriting, neat, 26
getting to know students as people, 34 Harvard
Gibbs, J. Willard, 13 calculus, 78
glossing over steps in lecture, 28 calculus, sales of, 78
grade project, 17, 82
grieving a, 52 project, virtues of, 82
negotiating after course is over, 52 help session, model for, 65
on final equaling course grade, 51 help session, professor and grader
grades attending, 64
determining, 50 help sessions, 63
discussing with students, 62 Hilbert, D., 72
haggling over, 51 histograms, 48, 50
negotiating, 51 Hollywood, 24
students distraught over, 49 homework, 30, 62
grading, 49, 62 as a basis for student/teacher
absolute method, 49 interaction, 30
accountability for, 50 assignment, composing, 30
alternative methodologies, 50 collaboration on, 31
as a multi-parameter problem, 49 covering most important topics, 30
 INDEX 141

doing by modifying examples in text, 125 Koblitz calculus project, 17

drilling students on essential material, 30
grading of, 30, 31 lab activities, 125
indexed against exams, 31 language in sexual harassment, 122
problem, giving help on, 64 large classes vs. small classes, 61
scores vs. exam scores, 125 large lecture
student collaboration on, 31 and teaching assistants, 62
honesty, penalizing students for, 50 discipline for, 62
Honor Code, 114 organization for, 62
horizontal grading, 62 preparation for, 62
how to study for an exam, 126 large lectures
humiliating students, 118 alienation of students in, 61
hyperboloid of one sheet, 27 being heard in, 58
coordinating, 62
ideas, layering of, 17 courtesy toward students in, 61
impatience with American students, 112 getting to know students in, 63
important topics in class, 126 intuition about, 61
impossible student questions, 11 not belittling students in, 61
impossible student questions, answering, 11 ombudsmen in, 63
incomplete pandemonium during, 77
completing an, 116 people management in, 59
completing by retaking course, 116 questions in, 58–60
formalization of, 115 student participation in, 60
incompletes, 115 student questions in, 60, 61
making up of, 115 students comfortable in, 60
never completed, 115 teaching in, 58
to whom to give, 115 too many questions in, 61
inducements to change grades, 124 large lectures vs. small lectures, 61
inductive learning, 71 late arrivals to class, 116, 118
inductive learning, examples of, 72 late papers, 113
inductive method of learning, 71 late work, 113
inductive vs. deductive method, 71 late work, handling, 113
informal conversation with students, 6 laying down the law, 117
instruction learning
filming of, 39 as a giving and a sharing activity, 65
instructor as a passive process, 125
as scapegoat, 122 as a sharing activity, 65
in charge of class, 118 lecture
leaving room during exam, 114 as a controlled conversation, 24
model for, 65 bungling a, 2
insulting students, 3 components of, 24
intellectual life and teaching life, 128
errors in, 8
interesting people vs. boring people, 26
how to replace, 7
Internet
is dead, 6, 10
as nerve center of class, 94
notes, 36
mathematics curriculum, 94
notes, institutionalized system of, 37
use for posting course information, 93
notes, professionally prepared, 36
involved with students, becoming, 89
preparing a cogent, 5
“I really understand the ideas but . . . ”, 125
use of time in, 9
James, W., 116 lecturer
jokes, telling of, 26 effective, 26
joking, 85 lectures, 6
alternatives to, 7
Kevorkian, Jack, 71 as inspiration, 7
knitting in class, 116 large, 58
know, things you don’t, 13 large—questions in, 58
knowing how to study, 125 nonverbal aspects of, 39
knowing material cold, 27 vs. reform, 9
142 INDEX

length of printed line, 27 monitoring language, 122

Leno, Jay, 59 Moore method
Letterman, David, 59 and reading, 20
Letterman, David as role model, 8 bad features, 20
linear algebra, teaching of, 91 example of, 21
good features, 20
Macarthur Prize, 78 of teaching, 20
Maple, 103 Moore, R. L., 19, 20, 119
Markov processes, 16 multi-variable calculus, 19
master your material, 1 Munro, H. H., 74
mastering the material, 125
math anxiety, 70 native English speakers, speaking with, 111
and education, 71 NetTutor, 94
and the mathematician, 71 new topic, starting a, 14
math avoidance, 71 non-mathematical questions by students,
math class as a discussion course, 87 112
math is unforgiving, 70 non-native English speakers, 111
Mathematica, 103 nonverbal communication, 39
Mathematical “No pain, no gain.”, 67
POST-IT notes, 88 not preparing, consequences of, 4
mathematical NSF education programs, 78
discourse, 81
office hours, 32
modeling, 17
as a device for getting to know students,
mathematics
33
a dry and forbidding subject, 86
as a device for working the audience, 33
and other departments, 75
as time set aside for students, 33
as a dry, forbidding subject, 86
before an exam, 32
as a tall subject, 19
meeting, 32
as a wide subject, 19
seeing students outside of, 32
MatLab, 103
special space for, 32
Maurer, S., 78
staggering of, 32
Maxima, 103
therapeutic value, 33
mentors, role of, 77
older faculty, 124
mentors, senior faculty as, 77 ombudsmen, 63
mentors, teaching, 76 optimal hypothesis, not using, 72
Meyer/Briggs dialectic, 80 oral reports, 86
Meyer/Briggs Type Indicator, 80 ordinary differential equations, teaching of,
microphone 91
getting used to, 58 organizational problems in large classes,
use of a, 58 117
use of in large lectures, 58 organizing steps, 28
minimalism, 44 overtime, running, 14
Minute Notes, 87 Oxford University, 79
Minute Notes and empowerment, 87
misogyny, 121 paradigm for student work, 28
misspelling, deliberate, 88 parentheses, 120
mistakes parents who can control their children, 118
handling with aplomb, 24 parents who cannot control their children,
in class, 119 118
in isolation, 119 Parlett, B., 72
in lecture, 2 Parlett, Beresford, 72
preventing, 119 participation, student, 85
snowballing, 119 passive mode, 7
that snowball, 119 passive observers, living lives as, 90
Mittag-Leffler Prize, 70 patience, 12, 34
Mittag-Leffler Prize, as compared to Nobel pauses during lecture, 27
Prize, 70 peers, fear of being embarrassed in front of,
modes of mathematical analysis, 90 88
 INDEX 143

persistence, 34 psychology students, teaching, 75

persistence in teaching students to graph,
28 question
personality type, teaching to, 80 making it more than it is, 13
piano, playing the, 4 questions, 3, 10, 64
places to stop, comfortable, 14 answering, 61, 64
plagiarism, 114 anticipating, 5
planimeter, 19 as a good thing, 34
Playboy magazine, 122 as a teaching device, 11
pleading, 124 asking, 84
policies, setting, 113 bad, 11
political correctness, 120, 122 belligerent, 16
political items as harassment, 122 cleaned up by the instructor, 11
politically correct language, 122 difficult, 18
poor questions, ideal answers to, 13 directed, 84
fielding on the fly, 4
POST-IT notes, 88
getting students to pose, 85
practicing the material, students, 125
posing, 85
pre-med students, teaching, 75
requiring brief answers, 15
precepts for creating a homework
requiring long answers, 15
assignment, 30
specific, 84
predator-prey problems, 17
steering the class, 3
preferential treatment, 121
student, 33
prejudice, 121
suiting answer to, 14
preparation
the art of asking, 85
and losing your edge, 4
too general, 84
importance of, 3
too vague, 84
psychology of, 2
turning bad into good, 11, 12
right amount of, 4
turning weak ones into strong ones, 86
striking a balance with, 65
questions, posing, 84
time, reducing, 5
quitting when the time is up, 15
prepare, 1, 2
quiz
so that you can respond to students, 2
sections and the TA, 66
preparedness, 62, 128
quizzes
preparedness, over-, 4
as a device for prompting questions, 85
preparing, 2
weekly, 31
for class, 3
written and graded by students, 87
presence, using your, 23
prevention of mistakes, techniques for, 119 racing through material, 29
priming, 85 racing to next topic, 24
printing, neat, 26 racism, 121
problem sessions, 63 reading newspaper in class, 116
graduate student in charge of, 63 real estate huckster, 8
harder to conduct than lecture, 64 rebuilding concepts in the mind, 25
preparation for, 64 reform
preparing for, 64, 65 and cognitive psychology, 82
vs. lectures, 64 and issues of content, 81
problems by doing vs. reform by philosophizing, 82
that students can do, 87 methods, typical, 78
that students cannot do, 87 money and, 80
product rule, form of, 12 second generation, 82
professionals, evaluation of, 37 texts, new, 82
professors teaching elementary courses, 2 use of to engage students, 10
prove the Riemann hypothesis or learn to Web site for, 79
teach, xi, 128 reformers
psychological barriers to blackboard as individuals, 9
technique, 29 communicating with traditionalists, 81
psychological barriers to voice control, 29 remarks in boxes, 27
psychological counselors, 71 remembrances of things past, 15
144 INDEX

repartee vs. teaching, 26 Stewart’s calculus book, 82

repeat an exam, allowing student to, 124 Stewart, J., 82
repeating an exam, 124 stimulating students, 25
rescinding of job offer because of sexual straightforward material looking difficult,
harassment, 123 25
respect, 1, 118 student
commanding, 118 absenteeism, 118
demanding, 118 discovery of ideas, 11
respecting excuses, 113
audience’s viewpoint, 1 inattention, 116
review session, handling questions during, projects, 85
65 questions guiding lecture, 11
review sessions, 63 questions, rephrasing, 61
rewards, internal, 7 reaction to human input, 40
Riesz, F., 112 reaction to intellectual input, 40
role model, 65 teaching evaluation, accuracy of, 40
romance, 116 unrest, 37
romance in class, 116 work, as a shadow of the instructor’s, 28
room, fill the, 23 students
Roosevelt, F. D., 83 as children, 120
Rubinstein, A., 125 as scholars, 40
Rudin, Walter, 73 going to the blackboard, 10
running overtime, 15 hanging around faculty office, 121
running undertime, 15 how to handle in large lectures, 59
rush, lecturing in a, 24 not talking to you, 70
rushing, not giving the impression of, 24 setting aside time for, 32
taking possession of ideas, 25
Sage, 103 want to be told what to do, 126
Saki, 74 studying vs. sitting in front of the book,
Saxon text series, 57 125
say the words as you write them, 29 subjective definitions of math terms, 112
Schober, Glenn, 8 surface design, 16
Second Law of Thermodynamics, 74 surviving as an academic, 121
self-esteem, 9 Sutton, W., 80
self-esteem vs. empowerment vs. attrition syllabus, 36, 49, 62
vs. content, 81 as contract with students, 54
self-evaluation and peer evaluation, 40 as magnum opus, 54
sempai-kohai relationship, 77 as organizational tool, 54
service courses, 74 as paper trail, 54
service courses, tailored to customers, 75 as paper trail for course, 54
sexism, 121 availability of, 54
sexism, accusations of, 123 brevity in, 54
sexual harassment, 120, 122, 124 contents of, 52
defense against, 120 for a course, 52
sexual items as harassment, 122 impossible, 36
shoulder, arm around, 122 on the Web, 54
showing off, 6
shushing, other students r’e offenders, 116 TA
silly, not being, 23 and quiz sections, 65
sliding blackboards, use of, 27 autonomy of, 66
small classes vs. large classes, 61 being a, 65
small lectures vs. large lectures, 61 experience as a, 66
speak up, 5 experience of, 66
speaking up, 5 liabilities of being a, 66
standard, students rising to a, 67 professor nurturing, 66
standing tailoring activities to the needs of the
in front of what you are writing, 29 institution, 121
in front of what you’ve written, 27 talking
 INDEX 145

down to students, 15, 121 text

too fast, 24 selecting, 35
too much, writing too little, 29 suitability of, 36
too rapidly and writing too rapidly, 29 textbook
teacher as cheerleader, 24 gestalt of, 57
teachers with accents, 112 choosing a, 35, 55
teaching choosing a single, 56
and pop psychology, 33 consulting other faculty when choosing,
and psychotherapy, 33 56
as a team effort, 91 from students’ point of view, 55
assistant as teacher, 66 liabilities of a, 55
assistants, 62, 65 liabilities of a poor choice, 55
assistants attending lectures, 64 living with a, 56
evaluation by exit interviews, 41, 42 notational conventions in, 55
evaluation by faculty experts, 41, 42 price of, 36
evaluation by peer review, 41, 42 problems in, 55
evaluation by self-evaluation, 41, 42 selection of, 56
evaluation by videotaping, 41 student getting to know, 56
evaluation by videotaping of lectures, 41 textbook, first edition of, 55
evaluation in a nutshell, 43 textbooks
evaluation, Dean’s view of, 41 by John Saxon, 57
evaluation, methods of, 41 costs of, 58
evaluation, midterm, 41 on CD-ROM, 57
evaluation, quick and dirty, 41 texture, adding to lecture, 74
evaluations, 4, 5, 37 The Lecherous Professor, 123
putting in context, 40 “the lecture is dead”, 10
evaluations, consistency of, 40 therapeutic aspects of teaching, 33
evaluations, dialectic comparison of, 37 things that you don’t know, 13
evaluations, empirical value of, 40 think ahead during lecture, 27
evaluations, experiment with, 38 Thurston, W., 19
evaluations, faculty reaction to, 37 Thurston, W. P., 19
evaluations, genesis of, 37 time
evaluations, outliers, 38 allotment of, 16
evaluations, reasons for, 37 management, 16
evaluations, valuable information in, 37 running out of, 14
evaluations, value of, 38 unmanaged use of, 9
French style, 75 use of, 9, 14
hero, 91 Time magazine, 12
in America, 112 timidity, student, 34
life and intellectual life, 128 tone, setting the, 117
personal aspects of, 70 Total Quality Management, 63
psychological aspects of, 24 tradition contrasted with reform, 10
reform, NSF sponsorship of, 78 traditional
skill as a cultivated art, 4 methods, rethinking, 83
styles, different methods for different techniques, use of to engage students, 10
people, 80 traditionalists
technologies for, 10 as individuals, 9
teasing, 25 communicating with reformers, 81
television, 7 triviality, perceived, 29
television evangelist, 8 trust, 12
television-like environment, 7 Tulane University, 78
telling a joke vs. teaching, 26 turf
terminology, over-use of, 18 in the reform vs. tradition debate, 81
test protecting our, 76
alteration, prevention of, 115 tutoring
time for, 16 your students, 67
tests, 43 tutors, 66
Texas, University of, 20 as crutches, 67
146 INDEX

dangers of, 66
departmental list of, 68
down side of, 67
faculty recommending, 67
faculty serving as, 67
need for, 67
proper use of, 67
two-hour exam in a one-hour time slot, 16

undertime, running, 14
uniform convergence, 17
uninflected monotone, avoiding, 23
using the same phrase twice, 29

vectors, division of, 12

velocity as a number, 13
velocity as a vector, 13
vertical grading, 62
voice
as a tool, 23
inflection of, 23
modulation, 6
modulation and projection, practice
with, 6
use of, 23
using your, 23

wall hangings as sexual harassment, 122

warnings, stern, 116
watching a mathematician think on his
feet, 3
wavelets, 17
Web page, as nerve center of class, 94
what will the test cover?, 126
“What is all this stuff good for?”, 16
“What is all this stuff good for?”, 16
wheedling, 25, 85
Wiener, N., 72
“Will this be on the test?”, 13, 18
winging a lecture, 4
winging it, 3
WolframAlpha, 103
working the audience, 34
world round or flat, 19
writing
how much should you put in, 29
neatly and cleanly, 29
neatly and slowly, 30
on the blackboard, how much to do, 29
too rapidly and talking too rapidly, 29

x-simple domain, 73

Yardbirds, 77
young faculty, 124
y-simple domain, 73
 This third edition is a lively and provocative tract
on how to teach mathematics in today’s new world
of online learning tools and innovative teaching
devices. The author guides the reader through
the joys and pitfalls of interacting with modern
undergraduates—telling you very explicitly what
to do and what not to do. This third edition has
been streamlined from the second edition, but
still includes the nuts and bolts of good teaching,
discussing material related to new developments in teaching method-
ology and technique, as well as adding an entire new chapter on online
teaching methods.

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