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“My work with MEC has completely transformed the I approach and teach math. My students are encouraged to show different ways of thinking about one problem. I now understand why some confusion is part of learning as students work to solve problems and how to support them.”  - 6th Grade Teacher.

“My classroom practice is improving as I work with MEC. My students are truly engaged with math as I’ve learned to differentiate for all the learners in my classroom. The quality of their work, and their ability to handle work with levels of increasing complexity is unlike anything I have seen in my previous years of teaching.”  - 1st Grade Teacher ‘

 
 
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MEC's Approach

MEC's ultimate goal guides our approach to teaching and learning: each student reaching her/his mathematical potential.

In order to secure a knowledgeable public and well-prepared teachers, all members of the community, including educators, need ongoing opportunities to learn mathematics in ways that model optimal classroom pedagogical and assessment practice. MEC provides such opportunities.

The work of MEC is based on the belief that a knowledgeable public and well-prepared teachers will make responsible decisions for children’s mathematics education. In order to secure a knowledgeable public and well-prepared teachers, all members of an educational community need ongoing opportunities to learn:

  • the mathematics children should know
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  • how children learn
  • what classroom environments maximize learning
  • ways of assessing whether children are learning important mathematics at appropriate levels
  • characteristics of challenging and engaging mathematics programs.

Although today’s students are held to higher mathematics standards, most mathematics teachers teach the way they were taught.  To reach high standards for students, it is imperative that teachers themselves have sustained opportunities to learn mathematics in ways that model optimal classroom pedagogical and assessment practices.  MEC provides such opportunities through a series of mathematics content courses and school-year follow-up workshops for K-12 teachers.

If children are to become mathematically proficient, then how mathematics is taught is every bit as important as what mathematics is taught. A disposition to persist at solving new and complex problems is essential, as is a belief that one can be successful as a problem solver. For additional reflections on what it means to do mathematics well, see Mathematically Powerful Students. For a look at why mathematics needs to be taught differently, see Two Mathematics Cultures. A glimpse into changes needed in classrooms is provided in the Instructional Practice: Focused Survey.