Nurturing a Love for Math

Robin Pemantle’s new book about teaching math is, as he puts it, “eclectic.”

“There are many successful math educators who do things differently,” explains Pemantle, “who have ideas that anyone could use to make their teaching better.” That’s why, rather than advocate for an overarching philosophy about math education, the text—appropriately titled There is No One Way to Teach Math—pulls from “many founts of wisdom.”

The book is the first of two volumes that Pemantle, a professor of mathematics, co-wrote with Henri Picciotto, a longtime K-12 math teacher and curriculum developer. In 2024, Pemantle also published the second edition of Analytic Combinatorics in Several Variables. That text showcases his expertise in probability theory and combinatorics—an expertise he was honored for with a 2024 election to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Considered one of the highest accolades a scientist can receive, NAS membership recognizes distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

There is No One Way to Teach Math draws from Pemantle’s decades of specialization and expertise, along with his recognition of the challenges and opportunities presented by a broader math education.

The relationship between the co-authors goes back to the 1970s, when Picciotto was a math tutor for teenage Pemantle. Later, they worked together as math specialists at a primary school in Berkeley, California. They lost touch as Pemantle pursued a career in academia that took him to schools in the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, and finally, to Penn, where he has been since 2003. But they reconnected in recent years, when Pemantle was visiting family in his hometown, and, in sharing their classroom experiences over the past few decades, realized they had something meaningful to add to conversations about math education.

Geared at middle and high school educators, their new book offers immediately actionable material such as lesson plans, as well as invitations for reflections and making connections across math disciplines. The second volume, currently being written, is called Beyond the Math Wars; it looks at the state of math education today and how it developed.

American debate about the best way to teach math goes back to the 1950s, Pemantle says, and has become increasingly politicized. There is No One Way to Teach Math is not interested in settling this debate. In a chapter about assessment, for example, the book does not delve into the pros and cons of standardized testing, but instead outlines approaches that teachers can take in the classroom, advocating for something that combines formative testing (in which students have the opportunity to work through problems multiple times without being penalized for mistakes), and evaluative testing, like an exam with “right” or “wrong” answers.

The focus on practical classroom approaches speaks to one of the reasons Pemantle was motivated to write these books. As a former primary school teacher himself, he is well aware of the work and craft that goes into creating middle and high school curricula. Primary school education can set the tone for how students proceed, for whether they discover and nurture a love for math or just try to get through it, Pemantle explains. He remembers his own passion and excitement for math growing when, as a kid, he found a series of booklets on special topics in math.

“One was called Invitation to Probability, one was called Topology, there was one on math and games,” he says. “I would see a new title and think, ‘Oh my gosh, what could be in there?’ Every one of those books held some secrets, and I wanted to find out what they were.”

With There is No One Way to Teach Math, Pemantle says he hopes that students and their teachers move past debates, leaving room for the joy of discovery.