some background
information on
Dr. Lawrence(Larry)
Lesser
updated January 12, 2012
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
Click HERE
for a list of selected papers (many with direct links),
click HERE for some
abstracts of papers, or click HERE for a
2-page overall vita.
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 pre-service and in-service 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 statistics/mathematics education interests
include misconceptions, intuition, representations, language/culture, equity,
and teacher education. Over my career, my scholarship has
clustered into foci of teacher knowledge, equity, engagement, intuition,
and curriculum.
I’ve long been 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. In subsequent empirical survey research
(published in Teaching Statistics
twice and in Induzioni),
I found that 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, and
these ideas also relate to my involvement in a recent NSF CCLI
grant in engineering education. In
addition to discussing overall framework issues (e.g., in Journal of Statistics Education), I have also explored the
intuitiveness or counterintuitiveness of several
particular scenarios/topics such as one-way 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), weighted averages (e.g., the ambiguity of finding ‘average class size’),
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 2001 NCTM Yearbook
chapter on multiple representations (of Simpson’s Paradox) has recently
received a fresh wave of attention, as evidenced by its being listed in several
years (e.g., www.statlit.org/StatLit2009.htm)
as the second-most downloaded article out of the hundreds on the world’s
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 have also published
refereed research papers (e.g., in Psychology of
Mathematics Education – North America Proceedings and in Texas
Mathematics Teacher) on issues related to choosing a sequence of
representations.
Since
2006, one of my biggest research projects has been an exploration of issues
English language learners encounter in learning statistics. The first stage of this research, a case
study of pre-service teachers conducted with Illinois State’s Matthew Winsor, is
published in the November
2009 issue of Statistics Education Research Journal (a top-tier research journal with a 10% acceptance
rate) and quantitative followup
work is in progress and under review.
Another recent major research project (published
in the Journal of Mathematics Education
Leadership) used mixed methods and item analysis to explore the
connection between student knowledge and teacher knowledge with a group of
middle school teachers in a sustained professional development project funded
by a Texas Education Agency grant I was awarded (with Mourat Tchoshanov). Extensions of this work have been published
in Educational Studies in Mathematics
and other journals.
In addition to conducting various empirical quantitative/qualitative
studies, 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, and diversity). 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 enjoyed getting to publish the first and/or
most definitive/comprehensive articles (see list of papers) on
several particular intersections of topics, including: statistics
education and English language learners, multiple representations
and Simpson’s Paradox, statistics
education and philosophical ethics, statistics
education and social justice, Jewish
culture and (ethno)mathematics, mathematics
and song, statistics
and song, statistics
and magic, statistics
education and fun, and statistics
and mnemonics.
My scholarship on engagement and my ability to write
curriculum informed by the latest education research recommendations has led to
major 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 former ASA president (and Founder’s Award winner) David S. Moore on the
distinguished Freeman/COMAP author team to prepare the 8th
edition and the (new!) 9th
edition of the applied math-for-liberal-arts textbook For All
Practical Purposes and I was given sole
responsibility for its four statistics chapters.
Because I am in many ways a “mathematical
scientist’s math educator,” I fit well in a Mathematical Sciences Department. Part of this refers to my strong mathematics/statistics
content background/experience, which includes all coursework for a statistics
PhD and work experience beyond academia as a statistician before I entered the
mathematics education PhD program. Also,
my strong content roots have clearly flavored my scholarship in terms of my
instinct and passion for rigor, aesthetics, optimizing, parsimony, discovery,
merging or creating areas, etc. Mathematics or statistics content has
frequently informed the development of my research questions in mathematics/statistics
education. Along the way, I have made
contributions to “mathematical knowledge for teaching” (Hill, Schilling, &
Ball, 2004), a specific aspect of mathematics content that would be useful in a
classroom situation – such as my NCTM Yearbook chapter on multiple
representations of (and the smallest dataset exhibiting) Simpson’s paradox, my Mathematics Teacher paper that models
the Birthday Problem, my Teaching
Statistics paper offering (with proof) the smallest simple dataset that
yields distinct basic summary statistics, and my 2010 Mathematics Teacher paper on average class size which includes
proofs of special cases and more general mathematical conjectures. I have
written with distinguished mathematical scientists (e.g., textbook with COMAP
authors; JSE and MASA papers with statisticians Dennis Pearl or Mark Glickman, a PRIMUS paper with mathematician Joe A.
Guthrie) and now have a couple of pathways with an Erdos
number of 4.
Much of my research has been connected to
externally-funded grants. I am PI
of NSF CCLI and TUES grant proposals. My past research in the area of standards
and alignment led to my being PI of a 2008 award from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
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 and I was invited to present the findings as an invited
featured solo presentation at the 2008 Charles A.
I’ve had
refereed/peer-reviewed papers accepted in a variety of selective and
highly-selective juried statistics/mathematics education research publications
(e.g., Statistics Education Research Journal, Proceedings of the International Conference
on Teaching Statistics, Journal of Statistics Education, Journal
of Mathematics Education Leadership, Adults Learning Mathematics
International Journal, Proceedings of the North-American Psychology of
Mathematics Education conference, Proceedings of the International Association
of Statistical Education satellite conference, Journal of Mathematics and
Culture, Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, and the NCTM
Yearbook) as well as in a variety of periodicals designed to reach a larger
audience that includes non-researcher educators (e.g., Teaching Statistics,
Primus, Mathematics Teacher, ON-Math:
Online Journal of School Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle
School, Statistics Teacher Network, Stats, Spreadsheet User, Technological Horizons in
Education Journal, Notices of the North American Study Group in Ethnomathematics, and North America’s most widely-read pedagogical periodical, The
Teaching Professor). 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.
Click HERE for a near-complete list of papers (many with direct links), click HERE for some abstracts of papers, or click HERE for a 2-page overall vita.
CITATIONS There
are 100+ instances where other scholars have cited one of my papers one or more
times in one of their papers. These
citations span several dissertations, books (e.g., the 2008 MAA
book Calculation vs. Context: Quantitative Literacy and its Implications for
Teacher Education, the 2008 Springer-Verlag book
Developing Students' Statistical Reasoning: Connecting Research and Teaching
Practice, the 2009 Wiley-Blackwell book
A Guide to Teaching Statistics: Innovations and Best Practices, the 2010 Wiley book Teaching Psychology
in Higher Education, the 2010 Stylus Press book Social Justice Education: Inviting Faculty to Transform Their
Institutions, and the 2011 ICMI Study Series), major websites
(e.g., www.statlit.org), and 38+ periodicals, including (in alphabetical
order): Arthuriana,
Choice, Computers in the Schools, Decision
Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics,
Gamma, Geombinatorics, International Journal for
Studies in Mathematics Education, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy,
International Journal of Computer Algebra in Mathematics Education, International Journal of Mathematical
Education in Science and Technology, Journal of Computers in Mathematics and
Science Teaching, Journal of Educational
Technology Systems, Journal of Mathematical Modelling
and Application, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, Journal of Mathematics and Culture, Journal
of Statistics Education, MAA Loci: Convergence, Mathematics Teacher, Model
Assisted Statistics and Applications, Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship
of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Primary-Online, Primus,
Proceedings of the Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics
Education, Proceedings of the International Conference on Teaching Statistics,
Proceedings of the SOBIE (Society of Business, Industry and Economics),
Proceedings of the World Congress of the International Fuzzy Systems
Association, Radical Statistics, Statistics Education Research Journal,
Syllabus, Teaching and Teacher Education, Teaching for Excellence and Equity in
Mathematics, Teaching Statistics, Technological Innovations in Statistics
Education, The Journal of Education for Business, The Mathematics Educator, The
(Montana) Mathematics Enthusiast, and Transportation
Research Record.
My 75+ 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 Marrakesh, Morocco, where my 1994 ICOTS talk was translated in real time over headphones into French (and I gave an invited paper at 2010 ICOTS in Ljubljana, Slovenia!). A close second would be when I was the featured guest on the hour-long live call-in show “Math Medley” (broadcast via AM radio and the Internet!) or the ASA and CAUSE webinars I’ve done. I have given invited featured plenary presentations at national, regional, and local meetings, including the opening plenary speaker for the Mathematical Association of America’s MathFest 2008 and for the 2009 NCTM regional conference in Nashville. I’ve given 45+ presentations (including 9 plenary/keynote talks) at regional/statewide conferences (including Western Statistics Teachers' Conference, Georgia Mathematics Conference, California Mathematics Council Community Colleges South, Regional National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conferences, Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching, Bilingual Educators Emphasizing and Mastering Standards conference, Mathematical Association of America, and Teachers Teaching with Technology, and the Charles A. Dana Center’s Annual Mathematics and Science Higher Education Conference). I have also given invited colloquium talks at schools and universities (e.g., University of Arizona) in over a dozen states and even overseas (the Technion in Haifa, Israel). During my time at AASU, I also gave several university-wide presentations (e.g., President's Symposium on Teaching and Learning, Robert Ingram Strozier Faculty Lecture Series, Scholarship of Teaching RoundTable, Women's Studies Conference). Overall, my presentations have spanned many areas/topics, including: mentoring new teachers, education outreach, mathematics and music/song, mathematics/statistics and philosophy (including ethics), mathematics history, multiculturalism/diversity/gender equity, using the Internet, using mass media, standards-based mathematics and technology, assessment, goals of statistics education, algebraic reasoning in statistics, line of fit, student-collected data, capture/recapture methods, mathematics and science connections, careers in statistics, constructivism, misconceptions, counterintuitive examples, collaborative learning, qualitative research, algebra reform, conceptual understanding of functions, and multiple representations.
My scholarship and research background has naturally guided my service to the profession, including: service as a founding Editor of Teaching for Excellence and Equity in Mathematics (national journal of TODOS: Mathematics for ALL), an Associate Editor of Journal of Statistics Education (an international journal of the American Statistical Association), an Associate Editor of Journal of Mathematics and Culture (international journal of the North American Study Group on Ethnomathematics), an Associate Editor of Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, an Editor of Noticias de TODOS: News from TODOS Mathematics for All, and an Editorial Board member of Texas Mathematics Teacher (Texas-wide refereed journal of Texas Council of Teachers of Mathematics). Also, I have done invited refereeing of papers for other journals (e.g., Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Statistics Education Research Journal, Journal of Statistics Education, Technology Innovations in Statistics 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) and (through a national election) am serving a 3-year term (2011-2013) as Publications Chair for the Statistical Education Section of the American Statistical Association. I was also chosen to serve a term (2011-2014) on the Professional Development Services Committee of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 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 founding President Miriam Leiva for “Exemplary contributions as a leader in TODOS: Mathematics for All 2006-07,” and to receive plaques in 2006 and 2010 from GEPCTM (Greater El Paso Council of Teachers of Mathematics) recognizing my “support and promotion of high-quality mathematics teaching and ongoing professional development throughout the preparation and careers of teachers of mathematics.” I served (2005-2009) on the RAB (Research Advisory Board) of CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education), have been mentoring local and non-local early-career researchers, served on the Program Committee of USCOTS 2007 (United States Conference on Teaching Statistics), and have been co-coordinating a “Fun” Resources Page and associated bi-annual national contest for 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 THECB and the TEA. At UTEP, my recent service activities have included chairing the UTEP Museum Committee (for 3 years, 2004-2007), editing the math department’s annual newsletter (MAXIMA, 2005–present), chairing the mathematics education PhD proposal program committee, and chairing the Mathematics Education Search Committee.
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
math” courses in analysis, topology and abstract algebra before taking my first
statistics class, 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 (whose distinctions now include ASA
Fellow, ASA Founders Award, and USCOTS Lifetime Achievement Award) Joan Garfield
as well. I was the first student in the program to declare a
specific focus (in terms of both dissertation and supporting coursework) in
statistics education. 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, math & math education, math 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
in-service 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 math education. I
was a faculty content person in the "NEXT STEP: K-12 and Higher Education
Working Differently and Together" grant (funded by the CCHE) 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 pre-service and in-service 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 year’s team for the competitively-selected CCHE-funded Educational Technology Improvement Project
(1995-2000) 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), and 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 pre-service elementary school teachers, but also by spending significant
time in some local schools (from suburban to urban, such as Savannah's East
Broad Street ES, where I spent 50+ hours), observing and working with
several in-service teachers and teaching some lessons myself. I also
worked with in-service teachers as part of an Eisenhower grant and delivered
in-service 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 two of my five Armstrong years
on special 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) greatly enhanced my
subsequent work with pre-service and in-service teachers.
In 2004, I accepted an Associate Professor
position in the Department of Mathematical
Sciences at The University of Texas at El
Paso (an emerging national research university of 22,000 students) 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
pre-service 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.
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! I have done outreach events such as Pi Day
educational events (at elementary, middle, and high schools) and adult
education classes in lottery literacy. The following representative recent sample
of narrative comments [taken from end-of-course evaluations from preservice elementary teachers] show that I offer
experiences 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 had 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 scholarship on engagement and my ability
to write curriculum informed by the latest education research recommendations
has led to major textbook writing projects, as noted in the scholarship
section of this webpage.
My
teaching innovations have resulted in
recognitions from my institution and beyond. I was selected to serve as AASU's 2001
university-wide Arthur M. Gignilliat, Jr. Professor (AASU’s premier
competitive faculty development award for innovative teaching). And I was
selected as 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. I was appointed in 2008 (representing the
College of Science) to serve a 3-year term on the university-wide CETaL Council
of Fellows. Also, I had a piece
published in the November 2010 issue of North America’s most widely-read
pedagogical periodical for professors, The
Teaching Professor. Finally, I
received the 2010 Distinguished College
or University Teaching of Mathematics award of the Southwestern Section of the
Mathematical Association of America, a 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching from the UTEP College
of Science, a 2011 UT System Regents’ Outstanding
Teaching Award, and two first-place recognitions in the 2011 national “Quantitative
Literacy in the Media” contest
sponsored by QL-SIGMAA.
PERSONAL BACKGROUND
I grew up in Houston and have also lived in
Austin, Greeley (CO), Savannah (GA), and now El Paso. Several Texas
educators are in my family tree, such as my late grandmother Julia Lesser
(who taught mathematics with distinction for over 25 years in the Fort Worth public
schools; a former student of hers recently wrote my dad: “Your mother taught the girls we could be savvy in math
right alongside the boys…your mother opened up the ordered universe for us. I
can still see the chalk flying when she hit the board in a frenzy of
excitement…..”) and her late sister Sadie Streusand (a teacher and counselor in the
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