Thanks to Pat Fossat!
We'd like to say "thanks" to Pat Fossat for his two years as a CFA in the Department of Mathematics Education. He is now teaching at Lake Mountain Middle School in Saratoga Springs.
Congratulations to Miriam Beazer!
Congratulations to Miriam Beazer who was the recipient of the Mathematics Education Outstanding Student award for Fall Semester 2019. She will be student teaching this semester and will be graduating in December 2019.
Dawn Teuscher appointed associate chair for Mathematics Education Department
Dawn Teuscher has been appointed as the new associate chair of the Mathematics Education Department. Her term began August 1, 2019.
Steven Jones Associate Professor
Congratulations to Steven Jones!! He has been granted continuing faculty status and has been promoted to Associate Professor.
Kate Johnson Associate Professor
Congratulations to Kate Johnson!! She has been granted continuing faculty status and has been promoted to Associate Professor.
The Structure of Student Teaching Can Change the Focus to Students’ Mathematical Thinking
For many undergraduates studying in the field of math education, student teaching serves as a trial run for their real world experience. When structured correctly, student teaching can prepare students to be excellent mathematics teachers when they finally step into their own classroom. However, when the focus of the experience is on classroom management rather than on teaching the educational material, the student teacher fails to garner the skill most vital to their chosen profession: helping students to learn and understand mathematics. In 2006, Dr. Blake Peterson and Dr. Keith Leatham (current chair and associate chair of the BYU Mathematics Education Department) evaluated their traditional approach to student teaching, and then restructured the student teaching experience to better meet the needs of the student teachers and of the program. This…
Professor Dawn Teuscher wins research award from NCTM
On April 3rd, 2019 Professor Dawn Teuscher along with former students Kylie Palsky and Charlie Palfreyman, received the Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award from NCTM for their co-authored article “Inverse Functions: Why Switch the Variable?” published in the March 2018 issue of Mathematics Teacher. “I was surprised by the award, but also excited to know that my work was appreciated and applicable to mathematics teachers. One of my reasons for leaving teaching in the public schools is that I wanted to influence more students than just my 180 students each year. I feel like my job now is to influence teachers, who then can influence their students. This allows me to impact more students than just those who would have taken my mathematics class.” This award recognizes outstanding contributions to Linking…
Dr. Blake Peterson Receives the Benjamin Cluff Jr. Excellence in Educator Preparation Award
On March 28th, 2019 Dr. Blake Peterson received the Benjamin Cluff Jr. Excellence in Educator Preparation award. Educator Preparation is the work to teach future K-12 teachers. Dr. Peterson has been the chair of the Department of Mathematics Education since 2014. Since then he has been very involved in recruitment. He said, “My focus is on preparing 7-12 mathematics teachers. Because of my current assignment as department chair, I have not been teaching future teachers much and my role is more with recruiting majors or working with accreditation issues across campus.” Dr. Peterson says, “Starting when the missionary age changed in the fall of 2012, we saw a 30% drop in the number of mathematics education majors. We thought those numbers would rebound after a couple of years, but the…
Dr. Amy Tanner receives a teaching award from the BYU Faculty Women’s Association
Dr. Tanner has consistently excellent student evaluations: students state that they have never taken a better class at BYU. They know she cares about them by how she interacts with them and makes adjustments with pacing as needed. Her peer evaluations note that she is also very organized and reflective about her teaching.
CPR for the Common Core: Using the Comprehensive Mathematics Instruction (CMI) Framework to Unpack Standards Across a Learning Cycle
In April of 2018, Scott Hendrickson and Sterling Hilton, a professor in Educational Leadership and Foundations presented their findings, CPR for the Common Core: Using the Comprehensive Mathematics (CMI) Framework to Unpack Standards Across a Learning Cycle of Instruction, at the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics Annual Meeting. Scott Hendrickson is a Teaching Professor who has been at BYU since 2005. The Comprehensive Mathematics Instruction (CMI) Framework developed by the Brigham Young University Public School Partnership informs teachers on how to align Common Core State Standards along a progression from emerging ideas, strategies and representations towards more robust conceptual, procedural and representational understanding. In this presentation, participants used the CMI Framework to deepen their understanding of a subset of high school standards by selecting, sequencing and connecting these standards across…