Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800–2000

Book excerpt: From the blackboard to the graphing calculator, the tools developed to teach mathematics in America have a rich history shaped by educational reform, technological innovation, and spirited entrepreneurship. In Tools of American Mathematics Teaching, 1800–2000, Peggy Aldrich Kidwell, Amy Ackerberg-Hastings, and David Lindsay Roberts present the first systematic historical study of the objects used in the American mathematics classroom. They discuss broad tools of presentation and pedagogy (not only blackboards and textbooks, but early twentieth-century standardized tests, teaching machines, and the overhead projector), tools for calculation, and tools for representation and measurement. Engaging and accessible, this volume tells the stories of how specific objects such as protractors, geometric models, slide rules, electronic calculators, and computers came to be used in classrooms, and how some disappeared.