TNE at MathFest

Magnhild Lien

Assistant Director, TNE, California State University Northridge

MathFest is the annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).   MathFest 2008 took place in Madison, Wisconsin on July 31 – August 2.  MAA is the largest professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level and its members include university, college and high school teachers.  The program at MathFest included invited talks, contributed paper sessions, workshops and panels on topics ranging from current mathematical research to mathematics education.  Thus this was viewed as a good venue to introduce the larger mathematical community to some of the work that is taking place at the TNE sites.  We were fortunate to have four of the TNE institutions, California State University Northridge, Michigan State University, University of Texas El Paso and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee represented at the panel.

TEACHERS FOR A NEW ERA’S IMPACT ON MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

Magnhild Lien, California State University Northridge

Friday, August 1, 2:15 p.m. – 3:35 p.m.

In 2002 and 2003, eleven colleges and universities in the United States were designated “Teachers for a New Era Institutions” by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The three TNE principles are 1) Decisions driven by evidence, 2) Engagements with the Arts and Sciences and 3) Teaching as an academically taught clinical practice profession. The panelists will discuss the impact of TNE on math education at their institutions; mathematical knowledge for teaching; changes that have been made in mathematics courses designed for prospective K-12 teachers; collaborations with (math) education faculty and research projects that are underway. 

The panelists were mathematicians Jerry Gold and Joel Zeitlin from CSUN; graduate student Aaron Brakoniecki from MSU; Program director Joanne Bogart (in place of Nancy Marcus, associate dean for Academic Programs and Success) and mathematics educator Larry Lesser from UTEP; mathematics educator and president of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Henry Kepner and mathematician Kevin McLeod from UWM.   The topics discussed by the panelists were: Mathematics for Elementary School: Collaboration Between Mathematics and Elementary Education (CSUN); TNE Impact on Course Development at Michigan State University; Enhancing the Scope and Quality of Mathematics Teacher Preparation at UTEP; Teacher Preparation Courses at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.