Teaching and Learning News

This post is reprinted from the SFU News blog. Read the original post here.

With mid-terms over, Natalia Kouzniak is again holding “crying sessions” in her office with students taking first- and second-year calculus courses who complain that they can’t do math.

“I spend 15-20 hours a week in my office explaining to students why math is useful, how to study it, what was insufficient in their studying,” says the SFU Surrey senior math lecturer.

“My teaching philosophy and goal is to help students unlock their potential – to get students who say ‘I’m not good enough at math’ to become good enough.”

Her students would agree the 2012 SFU Excellence in Teaching award winner meets that goal.

They are effusive in their praise of her teaching and encouragement, often noting high grades in courses such as calculus and differential equations they struggled with or failed in the past.

“First-year math requires perseverance and good teaching,” she says. “I’m a very strict instructor, but I always give students a second chance.”

Kouzniak takes her passion for math far beyond the classroom. She coordinates work at the Surrey campus Mathematics Open Lab drop-in centre for first- and second-year math students and participates in a number of outreach activities.

She organizes a popular math camp each summer as well, and helped found a Surrey math meet-and-greet for high school students to visit first-year math classes on campus.

She also visits local high schools to promote math at SFU and discuss the transition to university.

“Natalia believes in her students, which makes them believe in themselves,” says a nominator. “Her dedication and commitment to her students is phenomenal.”

Jamie Mulholland traces his interest in mathematics back to his parents.

“Their perceptions of math were that you just really need it to get through life, no matter what you’re going to do,” he says. They taught him that “it’s not about formulas, it’s not about arithmetic, it’s just a way of thinking, a way to solve problems – having confidence in your ability to solve problems.”

Now he is spreading that gospel with great success as a lecturer in Mathematics. In the video interview posted above, he talks about his love for teaching and the epiphany he had as a teaching assistant standing in front of a class for the first time: “It was partway through the lecture that I realized this is what I love doing – talking about mathematics, helping other people to see why I love mathematics and why they should open up their minds and their hearts to love it too.”

Clearly he is very good at what he does: in February he was one of three faculty members to receive a 2011 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. What makes him a great teacher? Undoubtedly part of the answer is to be found in his teaching philosophy. He quotes the Hungarian mathematician George Pólya, who said, “Mathematics is not a spectator sport.”

“And this is the philosophy that I take,” says Mulholland. “[My students] can’t just passively sit by and watch me present. They need to be engaged. They need to be working through mathematics on their own. They need to be doing the math, not me. I don’t need to be doing the math; I need to be assisting them with their pursuits in math.”

Watch this video on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScfOAOTG6Fk&feature=player_embedded

Visit Jamie Mulholland’s faculty profile page: www.math.sfu.ca/people/staff/faculty/jamie_mulholland

Visit Jamie Mulholland’s personal website: www.sfu.ca/~jtmulhol/

Two senior lecturers in SFU’s Department of Mathematics will deliver prize lectures at the summer meeting of the Canadian Mathematical Society in Regina, Saskatchewan, in June.

Veselin Jungic on blended learning

The first is Veselin Jungic, who will receive the society’s 2012 Excellence in Teaching Award for “sustained and distinguished contributions in mathematics teaching at the undergraduate level at a Canadian post-secondary education institution.”

Besides being deputy director of the Interdisciplinary Research in the Mathematical and Computational Sciences Centre (IRMACS), Jungic teaches a number of courses, including introductory calculus courses with more than 500 students. He also conducts research on methods and techniques for teaching large classes and has written research papers on the subject. He frequently incorporates online assignments and pioneered the use of Lon-CAPA, an online course management system, for mathematics courses at SFU.

Jungic was instrumental in the development of many of SFU’s outreach programs, including the “A Taste of Pi” program, which features enrichment activities for high school students, and the Math Student Ambassador Program, which connects SFU student volunteers with high schools to speak to students about pursuing university mathematics. In addition to his work with university and high school students, Veselin regularly teaches basic courses in mathematics to adult learners, including students in the SFU Liberal and Business Studies program and First Nations individuals who did not complete secondary education.

Jungic will deliver a prize lecture on “The Blended Learning Approach to Teaching a Calculus Class: What May Change and What Should Stay the Same.” His presentation will examine some general facts about blended learning – which he suggests can be described as an integration of “seemingly opposite approaches, such as formal and informal learning, face-to-face and online experiences, directed paths and reliance on self-direction” – and will analyze the use of the approach for various university-level science classes. Finally, he will discuss an ongoing attempt to introduce the blended learning approach to teaching calculus classes at SFU.

Malgorzata Dubiel on teaching the teachers

The second senior lecturer is Malgorzata Dubiel, who in December received the society’s 2011 Adrien Pouliot Award for “individuals or teams of individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to mathematics education in Canada.”

Dubiel will deliver a prize lecture on “Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: The Most Important Course You Can Teach?” In her abstract, Dubiel notes that the presentation will consider the evolution of SFU’s MATH 190 Mathematics for Elementary Teachers course, “its influence on similar courses at other B.C. institutions, and its influence on our enrichment programs.” Given that many students aiming for careers as elementary school teachers lack confidence in their ability to teach math and often dislike the subject, and given research findings that suggest people form lasting attitudes towards math by the end of grade 5, Dubiel asks, “Shouldn’t we be investing more into educating those who have a crucial role in introducing the next generation to mathematics?”

Learn more about Veselin Jungic and Malgorzata Dubiel:

Veselin Jungic’s faculty profile page: www.math.sfu.ca/people/staff/faculty/veselin_jungic

Veselin Jungic’s personal website: people.math.sfu.ca/~vjungic/

Malgorzata Dubiel’s faculty profile page: www.math.sfu.ca/people/staff/faculty/Malgorzata_dubiel

It’s interesting that when Jamie Mulholland talks about math, he uses words like “beauty” and “beautiful.” Clearly this lecturer in the Department of Mathematics loves his subject, and that passion – along with his desire and ability to awaken a similar feeling in his students – is one reason why he was chosen to be a recipient of SFU’s 2011 Excellence in Teaching Awards.

Mulholland, whose background is in pure math, has always had a strong interest in communicating his own appreciation for math to a wider audience. On his faculty profile page, he states, “I’m interested in mathematics education and promoting mathematics to students at all age levels: elementary school through college/university.”

The creativity with which he pursues that goal is evident on his personal website. There’s a page called Applets for calculus with tools he has developed to help students visualize abstract calculus concepts; the applets are as entertaining as they are informative. There’s also a link to the course notes for Mathematics of Permutation Puzzles, a third-year course he developed to introduce group theory through puzzles like Rubik’s cube.

For Mulholland, it’s all part of a mission he expressed in an interview with the SFU News: “My goal in terms of lifetime achievement for my career is to have everyone appreciate mathematics, but if I just make them less anxious, then I’m happy.”

Learn more about Mulholland and his passion for teaching by following the links below:

Faculty profile page: www.math.sfu.ca/people/staff/faculty/jamie_mulholland

Jamie Mulholland’s website: www.sfu.ca/~jtmulhol/index.html

SFU News: 2011 Teaching Excellence Awards.

When Natalia Kouzniak discovered she would have two visually-impaired students in two of her classes, her first reaction was one of fear. Dr. Kouzniak, a senior mathematics lecturer, says, “Calculus requires a lot of visual material – students have to understand and apply the concepts, rather than just practice them.”

To help fellow instructors who are working with students with disabilities, she’s happy to discuss the challenges she faced.

Kouzniak soon learned how dedicated, innovative, and highly intelligent the students were. Angell Lu-Lebel and Brendan Gaulin, both second-year kinesiology students, are highly accomplished and hope to pursue graduate work to become physiotherapists. They are also visually-impaired. Lu-Lebel has been blind since birth and Gaulin is legally blind.

Senior instructor Natalia Kouzniak and kinesiology students Angell Lu-Lebel and Brendan Gaulin plot curves on a graph

Juggling high and low technology

Kouzniak quickly recognized that despite her anxiety, she needed to figure out how she was going to teach the course materials to all her students. She appreciated that she was given some advanced notice that Lu-Lebel would be in her class, but would like to see more specialists in the field made available to instructors. There is no braille for math and, although the Centre for Students with Disabilities provides as much support as it can, few resources are offered. Lu-Lebel has a PACMate braille keyboard and the Centre provides access to a 3-D printer to prepare exams, other software, and student aides, but they needed to devise a way to work together on a regular basis.

As a team of four (including the teaching assistant, Pooja Pandey), they invested a great deal more time and energy than they had originally anticipated. They found a solution by juggling high and low technology and a lot of ingenuity. Pandey discovered her child playing with flexible, colourful, wax-coated strings called ‘Bendaroos’ and realized that they would allow Lu-Lebel and Gaulin to complete assessments and exams with the rest of their colleagues. Kouzniak used the strings to layout the graphs, while Lu-Lebel and Gaulin were able to plot curves and understand the geometrical set-up of the problems. (more…)

Building on its YouTube campaign to promote an innovative distance education calculus course, the SFU Math department is reaching out to prospective students:

What is remarkable about this video is how many students and faculty members contribute to the video and how clearly and passionately the speakers outline the many kinds of learning opportunities awaiting students who enroll in their programs and courses.

Dr. Veselin Jungic received the 2007 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award.

Jungic pulls out all the stops to help his students realize that mathematics is inherently useful and beautiful. He has even produced a three-part Math Girl video series that uses animated characters and comedy to explain calculus’ principles and usefulness.

Email: vjungic@sfu.ca

Department of Mathematics
Faculty of Science

Links: http://www.math.sfu.ca/~vjungic/

http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/Stories/sfunews040308014.shtml

• Coaxing First Nations to succeed in math - The Province, September 28, 2010
• Small Number counts to 100 – Video
• No dress code for online math course – The SFU News, December 3, 2009
• Change the Rate of Your Morning – Video
• Math mentorship helps aboriginal children – The SFU News, December 3, 2009
• Math girl returns – The SFU News, January 11, 2007
• Math Girl I, II, III – Videos
• Professor Avatar – Inside Higher Ed, October 16, 2007
• Higher education for the high-tech savvy – The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2007
• Center for Academic Excellence, Portland State University
• A Taste Of Pi - Series of talks and activities for high school students

Dr. Malgorzata Dubiel received the 2002 SFU Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2008, Dr. Dubiel’s teaching excellence was further recognized when she was awarded the 3M National Teaching Fellowship.

At 149 centimetres (4′10.5”) in height, Malgorzata Dubiel (left) often stands on her tip toes to fill a white board with equations that sometimes leave her students quaking in their seats.  Yet, they call her a “giant in teaching” because of her unique ability to inject humour, meaning and even beauty into mind-boggling mathematics.

Email: malgorzata_dubiel@sfu.ca

Department of Mathematics
Faculty of Science

Link:  http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/sfu_news/archives_2003/sfunews02060310.shtml

Update: In May 2011, Professor Dubiel was honoured with a 2011 YWCA Women of Distinction Award. Read the SFU News story here.