Rigorous mathematical thinking

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James T. Kinard, Sr., Alex Kozulin

This book demonstrates how rigorous mathematical thinking can be fostered through the development of students’ cognitive tools and operations. Though this approach can be applied in any classroom, it seems to be particularly effective with socially disadvantaged and culturally different students. The authors argue that children’s cognitive functions cannot be viewed as following a natural maturational path: They should be actively constructed during the educational process. The Rigorous Mathematical Thinking (RMT) model is based on two major theoretical approaches that allow such an active construction of cognitive functions: Vygotsky’s theory of psychological tools and Feuerstein’s concept of mediated learning experience. The book starts with general cognitive tools that are essential for all types of problem solving and then moves to mathematically specific cognitive tools and methods for utilizing these tools for mathematical conceptual formation. The application of the RMT model in various urban classrooms demonstrates how mathematics education standards can be reached even by students with a history of educational failure who were considered hopeless underachievers. James T. Kinard, Sr., earned his Ph.D. in electroanalytical chemistry from Howard University and is president of Innovations for the Development of Cognitive Literacy, Inc., Chicago, Illinois. He developed and implemented the Rigorous Mathematical Thinking program and is a certified trainer of the Feuerstein cognitive development program, Instrumental Enrichment. He lectures at international cognitive enrichment workshops in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands, and India. Alex Kozulin is research director of the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem, Israel, and teaches at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University. He held an academic appointment at Boston University, was a visiting professor at the University of Exeter and at the University of Witwatersrand, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Dr.Kozulin is author of Vygotsky’s Psychology: A Biography of Ideas (1990) and Psychological Tools: A Sociocultural Approach to Education (1998).

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Roman Koropeckyj

"Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), Poland's national poet, was one of the extraordinary personalities of the age. In chronicling the events of his life - his travels, numerous loves, a troubled marriage, years spent as a member of a heterodox religious sect, and friendships with such luminaries of the time as Aleksandr Pushkin, James Fenimore Cooper, George Sand, Giuseppe Mazzini, Margaret Fuller, and Aleksandr Herzen-Roman Koropeckyj draws a portrait of the Polish poet as a quintessential European Romantic." "Spanning five decades of one of the most turbulent periods in modern European history, Mickiewicz's life and works at once reflected and articulated the cultural and political upheavals marking post-Napoleonic Europe. After a poetic debut in his native Lithuania that transformed the face of Polish literature, he spent five years of exile in Russia for engaging in Polish "patriotic" activity.^ Subsequently, his grand tour of Europe was interrupted by his country's 1830 uprising against Russia; his failure to take part in it would haunt him for the rest of his life. For the next twenty years Mickiewicz shared the fate of other Polish emigres in the West. It was here that he wrote Forefathers' Eve, part 3 (1832) and Pan Tadeusz (1834), arguably the two most influential works of modern Polish literature. His reputation as his country's most prominent poet secured him a position teaching Latin literature at the Academy of Lausanne and then the first chair of Slavic Literature at the College de France. In 1848 he organized a Polish legion in Italy and upon his return to Paris founded a radical French-language newspaper.^ His final days were devoted to forming a Polish legion in Istanbul." "This illustrated biography - the first scholarly biography of the poet to be published in English since 1911 - draws extensively on diaries, memoirs, correspondence, and the poet's literary texts to make sense of a life as sublime as it was tragic. It concludes with a description of the solemn transfer of Mickiewicz's remains in 1890 from Paris to Cracow, where he was interred in the Royal Cathedral alongside Poland's kings and military heroes."--BOOK JACKET.

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Kathryn Lasky

A book about Queen Marie Antoinette's youth written in diary format. Makes you feel very close to little Antonia as she has doubts, and excitement, too about her upcoming marrige and journey to France. Personally, I greatly enjoyed this book and would reccomend it to anyone interested in Marie Antoinette.

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Julie Powell

Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs--tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world--from South America to Europe to Africa . At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart.