Math Educators Press Publishers To Develop Better Teaching Materials

By Peter West

CHICAGO--To compete successfully in the publishing marketplace of the 1990's, educational publishers must begin producing a new generation of mathematics materials that reflects both a new emphasis on electronic learning aids and a changing understanding of how math should be taught, according to leading math educators.

The idea that the math classrooms of the decade will be technologically oriented "mathematics communities'' that operate in harmony with the teaching and curriculum standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics was sounded repeatedly here last week at a conference entitled "N.C.T.M. Standards: Implications for Instructional Materials.''

The meeting--which was jointly sponsored by the î.ã.ô.í. and the School Division of the Association of American Publishers--was one in a series of regular conferences that the publishers' group schedules to keep materials developers current...