some background information
for
Dr. Lawrence(Larry)
M. Lesser
EDUCATION
precollegiate education after 1st grade was in Houston ISD public schools, including Bellaire HS
B.A.
(1986) in Mathematics / Mathematical Sciences from Rice University
M.S.
(1989) in Statistics from the University of Texas at Austin
Also did all UT coursework for a statistics PhD
and have credit for Society of Actuaries' Exams 100,110,120 (i.e., Course
1, plus 35 prof. dev. units)
Ph.D. (1994) in Mathematics Education from
the University of Texas at Austin
My
research program is situated in mathematics education and includes a
specialized focus on statistics education, an area still rapidly growing in
size and importance with the ever increasing need for all citizens to gain
statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking in our information age. Because mathematics and statistics have been
shown to be frequently associated with anxiety, difficulty, and disinterest
among secondary and postsecondary students, and because of the extra
responsibility of making sure that the preservice and
inservice teachers we teach will not reinforce
negative attitudes, the driving interest behind my research has been to develop
and assess ways to make mathematics/statistics more intuitive, interesting and
meaningful to students.
My
scholarship about making mathematics/statistics more intuitive includes my
studies of the learning of specific topics such as analysis of variance(ANOVA), disjunctive event probability (e.g., how
many people it takes to have at least a 50% chance of at least 2 people in the
room being born on the same day of the year), and Simpson’s Paradox
(i.e., a comparison can be reversed upon aggregation). Understanding Simpson’s Paradox is
listed by the National Council on Education and the Disciplines (2001) as an
essential for citizenship, and plays a big role in understanding observed
association between variables. My NCTM Yearbook chapter
on representations of Simpson’s Paradox was listed (www.statlit.org/StatLit2006.htm)
as the second-most downloaded article in 2006 out of the hundreds on a premier
statistics literacy website. Examining
the role of multiple representations supports not only the newest standard of
NCTM (2000) but also recommendations for teaching English language learners.
I’m
also intrigued by the relationship between what students find intuitive and
what they find interesting. My dissertation
developed a theoretical model on the selection and role of introductory
statistics scenarios that motivate and engage the intuition and serve as rich
vehicles for multiple representations/perspectives, and some of my subsequent
publications (see below) further explored, extended or applied this. I conducted empirical survey research in
which college students starting an introductory statistics course showed highly
significant positive correlation between interest in and surprise with respect
to true statistical statements in lay language.
This result suggests that counterintuitive scenarios such as
Simpson’s Paradox may motivate more than they demoralize. The importance of this to curriculum and
instruction is reflected by this Teaching
Statistics paper getting selected twice for (international)
republication. Also, I have discussed
related framework issues in Journal of
Statistics Education.
In addition to various
examples of empirical quantitative/qualitative research, I also research ways
to make mathematics/statistics more meaningful to students (and connected to
the educational environment), using the depth and breadth of my background to
find or make bridges between the literatures of mathematics, statistics,
mathematics education, statistics education, and a variety of other realms
(e.g., lotteries, music, ethics, social justice, culture/ethnomathematics). These papers, especially in subareas where
there is little prior work, are often integrative syntheses or critical reviews
of a theoretical, foundational, developmental, philosophical or
historical/cultural nature. I have been fortunate to have the chance to publish
the first and/or most definitive/comprehensive articles (citations included
below) on several particular intersections of topics, including: multiple representations
and Simpson’s Paradox, statistics education and song, mathematics
education and song, Jewish
culture and (ethno)mathematics, statistics
education and philosophical ethics, and statistics
education and social justice.
I’ve written in a variety of juried statistics/mathematics
education research periodicals (e.g., Journal of Statistics Education,
Journal of Mathematics Education Leadership, Adults Learning Mathematics
– an International Journal, Journal of Mathematics and Culture,
the NCTM Yearbook) as well as in a variety of juried publications meant to be
more accessible to practitioners (e.g., Teaching Statistics, Mathematics
Teacher, ON-Math: Online Journal of School Mathematics, Statistics
Teacher Network, Spreadsheet User, Technological Horizons in
Education Journal). In 2007, I was nominated for the Mathematical Association
of America’s bi-annual Annie
and John Selden Prize for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education.
My
research in engaging mathematics education and my ability to write curriculum
informed by the latest research recommendations has led to textbook writing
projects. I co-authored the 1998
McGraw-Hill text ACT in Algebra:
Applications, Concepts and Technology in Learning Algebra, which lets
applications (not definitions) launch the mathematics, incorporates modeling
and technology appropriately, emphasizes conceptual understanding as well as
computational skill, and has realistic acknowledgement of the role of
factoring-dependent methods. In 2007, I was invited to succeed David S. Moore on the
distinguished Freeman/COMAP textbook author team to prepare the
forthcoming thoroughly-revised 8th
edition of the first (and still the best!) math-for-liberal-arts
textbook For All
Practical Purposes and I was given sole
responsibility for its four statistics chapters.
Recently, much of my work
has related to my involvements with grants such as the National Science Foundation-funded El Paso
Mathematics Science Partnership (with the El
Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence) Mathematics
Science Partnership, including a multi-year research/outreach/professional
development partnership with UTEP colleagues at a particular EPISD school which
has achieved recognitions such as Gold Performance Acknowledgement (in Dec.
2005) for being in the top quartile in improvement on math TAKS passing rate. I co-wrote (with M. Tchoshanov) a six-figure
“Improving
Student Achievement in Mathematics through Professional Development
Partnerships Grant” funded by the Texas Education Agency for
2005-2007: Evidence-based Middle-school
Mathematics Achievement Program, and our work yielded an invited
half-plenary presentation at the 2006 Charles A. Dana Center’s Annual Mathematics and
Science Higher Education Conference and a juried paper in Journal of
Mathematics Education Leadership. I have also been doing “subaward” work as part of other grants, including NSF
CCLI Phase 2, Carnegie Foundation Teachers
for a New Era, and Department of Education (Project ACE and Project LEAP-UP). Also, I have
served as co-PI/co-writer of three Teacher Quality grants
with M. Tchoshanov and with O. Kosheleva.
My past research in the area of standards and alignment led to my being
PI of a grant in 2008 from the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board which allowed me to co-chair a
Statewide Discipline-Based Vertical Team conducting gap analysis between the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
and the Texas
College Readiness Standards. I was
invited to present findings from this work as a half-plenary solo talk at the
2008
Click HERE
for abstracts of selected papers,
click HERE for a
near-complete list (many with direct links) of papers,
or click HERE for
a 2-page overall vita.
CITATIONS by others of my work have appeared in several
dissertations, books (e.g., the 2008 MAA book Calculation vs. Context:
Quantitative Literacy and its Implications for Teacher Education), and at
least two dozen periodicals, including: Statistics Education Research Journal, Journal of Statistics Education, Statistics Education Research Newsletter,
Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, Primus, Journal of Computers in Mathematics and
Science Teaching, Computers in the Schools, International Journal
of Computer Algebra in Mathematics Education, Journal of Educational
Technology Systems, Teaching
Statistics, Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education, Journal of Mathematics and Culture, The
Montana Mathematics Enthusiast, MAA Focus,
MAA Online, Plus Magazine, Mathematics
Teacher, NCTM News Bulletin, Radical Statistics, Stats, Kentucky
Journal of Excellence in College Teaching and Learning, Syllabus,
Choice, Transportation Research Record, and Winterthur Portfolio.
My (about 50) presentations
at national/international conferences include the International Conference on
Teaching Statistics, the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics, International Conference on Technology
in Collegiate Mathematics, National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics, Mathematical
Association of America (winter & summer meetings), North American
chapter of the International Group for the Psychology
of Mathematics Education, Association
for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, Joint Statistical
Meetings (American Statistical Association),
International Conference
on Education, Labor & Emancipation, Conference on Math Education and
Social Justice, Lineae Terrarum: International
Borders Conference, Association of
Mathematics Teacher Educators, National
Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, Working Class/Poverty Class
Academics Conference, the Sun
Conference on Teaching and Learning, the Advanced Placement Conference, Research Council on Mathematics Learning,
and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Research Presession. The
most exotic place I’ve presented was probably
My research background has naturally guided my service to the profession, including: serving as an Associate Editor of JSE (Journal of Statistics Education, an international journal of the American Statistical Association), as Associate Editor of JMC (Journal of Mathematics and Culture, an international journal of the North American Study Group on Ethnomathematics), as a co-Editor of Noticias de TODOS: News from TODOS Mathematics for All, and as an Editorial Board member of Texas Mathematics Teacher. Also, I have done invited refereeing of papers for journals (e.g., Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Mathematics Teacher, and Teaching Statistics) and conferences (e.g., Psychology of Mathematics Education North American conferences and the International Conference on Teaching Statistics). I have also served on program and other committees for various national or regional mathematics/statistics/education conferences (e.g., USCOTS, MAA, NCTM, Western Statistics Teachers' Conference, "Transitions in Qualitative Inquiry" seminar series). I was deeply honored to be recognized as a finalist for the 2001 Gladys M. Thomason Distinguished Service Award by the Georgia Council of Teachers of Mathematics based on “distinguished service in the field of mathematics education at the local, regional, and state levels,” to receive a certificate of appreciation from TODOS President Miriam Leiva for “Exemplary contributions as a leader in TODOS: Mathematics for All 2006-07,” and a 2006 plaque from GEPCTM recognizing my “support and promotion of high-quality mathematics teaching and ongoing professional development throughout the preparation and careers of teachers of mathematics.” I am currently serving (2005-2008) on the RAB of CAUSE (Research Advisory Board of Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education), served on the Program Committee of USCOTS 2007 (United States Conference on Teaching Statistics), and have coordinated a “Fun” Resources Page of CAUSEWeb. On the state level, I did invited service in 2008 as faculty chair of a Statewide Discipline-Based Vertical Team on college readiness for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency. At UTEP, my recent service activities include chairing the UTEP Museum Committee (for 3 years), editing the math department’s annual newsletter (MAXIMA) , chairing the mathematics education PhD proposal program committee, and chairing a Mathematics Education Search Committee (which succeeded in making a quality hire who joined us!).
TEACHING & RELATED EXPERIENCE
Through my
education, my interest in mathematics was developed by involvement in
extracurricular mathematics activities, including UIL
Number Sense, Mu Alpha Theta, Atlantic Region Mathematics League (I competed
at this national meet as a member of the Texas delegation), and Putnam exams (scoring as high as the
70th percentile nationwide). I learned there's much mathematics beyond
our textbooks and that "recreational mathematics" is not an
oxymoron! I was fortunate to have many excellent professors in
college (e.g., Dr. Richard Tapia)
who helped prepare me and inspire me to pursue graduate work. In my own
teaching today, I strive similarly to give students high levels of challenge
and support, broaden their view of how mathematics/statistics connects to other
areas, and give them a view of how mathematics/statistics is done by real
people in real life!
In graduate school,
I took the usual “pure mathematics” courses in analysis, topology
and abstract algebra before taking my first statistics class ever, which fed my
passion to use my mathematical background in a more applied way. I
proceeded to earn a masters' degree in statistics, work as a statistical
consultant on a test-equating psychometrics project with Carl
Morris, teach (and coordinate) statistics for UT business majors, pass
some actuary exams, and work for a couple of years as the sole staff
statistician for the Texas Legislative
Council (I helped research and implement methodology to estimate racial
bloc voting for the redistricting
project, a real-world experience of using mathematics outside academia that
has given my classroom teaching additional authenticity). The
professional tutoring I had done for a private company and various university
departments and the non-tenure-track university teaching I was doing [by the
time I earned my PhD, I had taught 16 classes -- mathematics and statistics,
upper & lower-division -- at St.
Edward's University (a Carnegie Master’s comprehensive Univ. II in
Austin of 3000 students), Southwestern
University (a baccalaureate liberal arts college in Georgetown, TX of
1200), and the University of Texas at Austin
(a Carnegie Doct./Research Univ. Extensive of
50,000)] helped me realize that, while I greatly enjoyed acquiring my solid
background in mathematics and statistics content, I had still greater talents,
interests and calling in the areas of curriculum and instruction, finding ways
to make important content more accessible and interesting. (an aside: be open not only to the
possibility that your direction may evolve, but also to the idea that what you
learn now may be useful later in unexpected ways!) I then pursued a PhD
in Mathematics Education under Ralph Cain with the distinguished committee of
Ray Carry, Charles Lamb, Maggie Myers, and Mary Parker, and with valuable
encouragement from statistics educator (and ASA Fellow and ASA Founders Award
winner) Joan
Garfield as well. It was (and still is) an exciting time for
involvement in the areas of statistics education and mathematics education,
which are growing rapidly, along with their overlap, and I’ve been able
to be part of a “bridge” by remaining engaged with both fields and
their literatures (e.g., I’ve published in ASA journals, NCTM journals,
and joint ASA-NCTM journals!). In
1993, a UT adult education
course I created and taught on the psychology and probability underlying
the then-months-old Texas Lottery
attracted extensive media
coverage -- from a story
spanning 37 column inches in the August 28 Austin American-Statesman
all the way to the lead "Dollars and Sense" segment throughout that
weekend's Cable News Network (CNN) Headline News! (Subsequent
stories have often accompanied the times lotteries begin new games or amass
particularly big jackpots, including interviews by
After my PhD, I
began teaching and developing/reforming numerous courses (in statistics &
statistics education, mathematics & mathematics education, mathematics
history, and research methodology) as an Assistant Professor for the mathematical sciences department of the University of Northern Colorado (a Carnegie
Doctoral/Research extensive University of 10,000 students an hour north of Denver).
While at UNC, I worked with middle/secondary inservice
teachers, helped coordinate seminars & conferences, and supervised tutors,
student teachers, undergraduate research and doctoral dissertations. As a
key member of the Educational
Mathematics PhD program, one of my accomplishments was developing doctoral
courses such as one in qualitative research methods in mathematics
education. I was a faculty content person in the "NEXT STEP: K-12
and Higher Education Working Differently and Together" grant (funded by
the Colorado Commission
on Higher Education) to explore creating a seamless K-16 standards-based
alignment between high school exit standards and college entrance standards. I
also taught and redesigned courses for preservice and inservice teachers as
part of the Rocky
Mountain Secondary Teacher Enhancement Initiative in Mathematics and Rocky
Mountain Teacher Education Collaborative NSF grants. As a member of the
first competitively-selected CCHE-funded Educational
Technology Improvement Project team at UNC, I gained experience in
developing and implementing standards, performance-based assessments and
rubrics (just as most states’ K-12 schools have been required to implement)
and was the first at UNC to integrate sustained, standards-based technology and
reformed curriculum into the multi-section introductory statistics
course. I was also active in the Colorado Council of Teachers of
Mathematics (e.g., presentations and committee work for state & regional
conferences), was Vice-Chair of UNC's Professional
Education Council. At UNC, I also did
some administrative-type work such as coordinating multi-section introductory
statistics courses, a university-wide tutoring lab, and programmatic assessment
reports, and I have done some of this at other institutions as well.
In 1999, I began an
Associate Professor position in the Department
of Mathematics at Armstrong Atlantic
State University (a comprehensive Carnegie Master's University I of
5500 students in the University System
of Georgia) to renew and broaden further my mathematics education background,
especially into the elementary school curriculum -- not only by teaching
courses for preservice elementary school teachers,
but also by spending significant time in some local schools (from suburban to
urban, such as Savannah's East
Broad Street Elementary School, where I spent over 50 hours), observing and
working with several inservice teachers and teaching
some lessons myself. I also worked with inservice
teachers as part of an Eisenhower grant and delivered inservice
teacher training workshops -- for individual schools as well as for larger
educational organizations such as the AASU/Chatham County Public Schools
Partnership Board, the Lowcountry Math and Science
Hub, and even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
& Museum! Also, I spent 2 of my 5 Armstrong years on
leave to strengthen my secondary mathematics education experiential base by
working as a full-time high school math teacher (and department chair)
at Emery HS. Emery’s
advisory activities, outdoor learning, field trips, and strong community
service component/mission gave me deeper insight into how to support and
motivate “the whole person.”
My experience there teaching a range of students (e.g., from the 35th
to the 99th percentiles) and courses (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra
II, Precalculus, Calculus) has greatly enhanced my
subsequent work with preservice and inservice teachers.
In 2004, I accepted
an Associate Professor position in the Department
of Mathematical Sciences at The
University of Texas at El Paso to have more opportunity for research
and collaboration – with a critical mass of
talented mathematics educators and science educators, statisticians and
mathematicians in rich cultural and natural environments. During my tenure here (yes, I’m tenured),
I’ve also enjoyed record opportunities to team teach in classroom and in
field-based settings (e.g., an integrated block with COE faculty for UTEP preservice teachers at Canutillo ES) as well as to co-write
papers and grants. UTEP is a
research-intensive doctoral university (the country’s only one with a
Mexican-American majority student population) that started in 1914 and now has
some 20,000 students and 1,000 faculty.
UTEP is part of the University of
Texas System (the nation’s second largest university system), where I
began my teaching career in the 80’s!
Another attraction is that I have family and familial education roots in
this western tip of Texas, including relatives who attended UTEP and had
distinguished teaching service for El Paso
Community College, El Paso
ISD (while at Zach White Elementary,
my great aunt Matilda was a teacher of the year, and later organized the first
education scholarship at UTEP for future teachers: the Matilda Amstater Shanblum Future Teacher
Scholarship Fund), and a religious dayschool in El
Paso.
The
following representative recent sample of narrative comments [taken from
end-of-course evaluations from preservice elementary
teachers] show that I offer assignments that were both challenging and
engaging: “I really liked that Dr. Lesser used various manipulatives, integrated other subjects with mathematics
such as social studies, sang songs to us about mathematical concepts, related
math to current events such as the presidential election, he also challenged us
and high expectations of his students.” “Very positive attitude and
motivated us every class meeting.”
“Made us think – that’s a good thing
J” “The instructor’s style is very
unique. He is always looking for things
that make class fun, interesting AND educational.” “The assignments
have been challenging and fun. He makes
us look forward to seeing if our answers or assumptions were right or
wrong.”
My interactive, integrated
style aims to give students of diverse backgrounds high levels of support and
worthwhile challenge, to broaden their view of how real people do (and teach)
mathematics that often connects to other areas, and to enhance their
quantitative literacy. While my students do not always declare mathematics
to be their favorite subject, they universally acknowledge that my enthusiasm
and approachability makes the class a “safe environment” and allows
them to experience greater enjoyment, interaction, meaning, and learning than
they often had in prior mathematics classes.
I appropriately draw from a broad pedagogical repertoire that
includes manipulatives, technology (ranging from the
Internet to EXCEL to data-collection devices), mass media, multiple
representations, writing, traditional and alternative assessment,
standards-based education, math history, equity/diversity awareness,
cooperative learning activities, real-world applications and connections,
literature, problem solving, student-collected data and the occasional
mathematical magic trick or math song!
(note: I actually have some juried scholarship in the
area of incorporating “fun” into teaching, and I am a published
songwriter and poet and the first-place winner of a contest sponsored by a
national science humor magazine). I have
done outreach events such as Pi Day
educational events (at elementary, middle, and high schools) and adult
education classes in lottery literacy.
I was a finalist for AASU's 2001 Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching,
Learning and Technology and was further honored to serve as AASU's
university-wide Arthur
M. Gignilliat, Jr. Professor (AASU’s
premier competitive faculty development award) throughout 2001. I have
also been nominated for the ASA Section on Statistical
Education's national Waller Education Award
for innovation in teaching the introductory statistics course. And I was an IMPACT Fellow for the
2005-06 school year under the NSF ADVANCE
Institutional Transformation for Faculty Diversity grant at UTEP to play a
leadership role in developing new ways of integrating teaching, research and
service. In 2008, I was the nominee of
the UTEP Department of Mathematical Sciences for the Jack R. Bristol Award for
Teaching Excellence in the
PERSONAL BACKGROUND
I grew up in
Go back to my homepage by clicking HERE
