6 - In the Classroom

Summary

“After stating the axioms and giving motivating examples to illustrate their meaning he would then state definitions and theorems. He simply read them from his book as the students copied them down. He would then instruct the class to find proofs of their own and also to construct examples to show that the hypotheses of the theorems could not be weakened, omitted, or partially omitted. … When a student stated that he could prove Theorem x, he was asked to go to the blackboard and present the proof. Then the other students, especially those who hadn't been able to discover a proof, would make sure that the proof presented was correct and convincing. Moore sternly prevented heckling. This was seldom necessary because the whole atmosphere was one of a serious community effort to understand the argument.”

—F. Burton Jones

This chapter presents snapshots of the day-to-day operations in Moore Method classrooms. Several themes run common to the essays. Each author clearly tailors his instruction to individual students and uses some form of diary to track progress of the class and of individual students. Each stresses the importance of the first day of the course, of “selling” the method to the students, and of active participation by the students. Because of this participation, the unpredictability of what might happen in each class is reflected as well. Each author spends considerable time preparing for class by evaluating what has been accomplished and what might be accomplished if the right seeds are planted during the next class period.