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What do you guys think of maths education questions? I wouldn't want the site to be overwhelmed, but they are related to maths. By its nature, many education questions will be subjective and difficult to answer.

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I think they have a place, but should follow standards that we can all agree one. One math ed question that I am particularly proud of is http://mathoverflow.net/questions/8258/whats-a-nice-argument-that-shows-the-volume-of-the-unit-n-ball-in-rn-approaches It turned out to be a great question with some wonderful answers.

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I see little difference in principle between teaching questions and the multitude of "whats an intuitive definition/explanation/motivation for x" questions. They will draw the same kind of answers.
And I definitely think that questions of the latter form have gotten some very good answers here. I'd like to think the same thing will happen with the teaching questions, since we will hopefully have answers from both teachers and students.

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Intuitive questions are about the core of what maths is about and so I am hugely in favour of them. What this thread is about is educational questions that aren't about intuitive definition/explanation/ect? – Casebash Jul 30 '10 at 0:49
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Intuition questions are for a different phase of mathematical education. The question that prompted this thread is about times tables, which touches the boundary between math, math education, and child psychology. At higher levels, on the other hand, there is often a legitimate gap between what students are taught and the "right" way to think about things. – Qiaochu Yuan Jul 30 '10 at 1:13
@Casebash: @Qiaochu: True, the times table question certainly does not offer as much opportunity for such answers. I was answering Casebash's question as I read it, which was "should math education questions in general be allowed?" – Larry Wang Jul 30 '10 at 1:18

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