| Introduction | Who We Are | Funding | Acknowledgments | Case Studies | Evaluation forms |
The title: Teaching
Mathematics
in Colleges and Universities: Case Studies for Today's Classroom.
(Available in graduate student and faculty editions.)
To order copies of the books go to the AMS website or to the MAA website
and search for "friedberg".
Case Studies Presentations at Professional Society Meetings (Fall 2001 on):
1. The AMS-MER Workshop on
Excellence in
Undergraduate
Mathematics
Mathematics for the
"Rest
of Us"
December 6-9, 2001 at Arizona State
University,
Tempe AZ, featured sessions on the TA development using the BCCase
materials,
presented by Prof. Friedberg.
Slides for Prof. Friedberg's talks are
available.
For the .pdf file of his plenary slides, press here. For .dvi format, press here. For postscript format, press
here.
For the .pdf file of his breakout sessons
slides,
press here. For .dvi format,
press
here. For postscript format,
press
here.
2. Solomon Friedberg and Karen Rhea (University of Michigan) ran TA Development Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 2002.
3. MAA Mathfest 2002 (Burlington, VT August 1-3, 2002): Prof. Friedberg was one of the organizers of the Teaching Workshop for Graduate Students and New Faculty,and did two case studies with participants. He also spoke in the roundtable discussion on Implementing Preparation and Development Programs for College Mathematics Instuctors.
4. Profs. Solomon Friedberg and Elizabeth Brown (Dartmouth College) ran TA Development Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, October 2002.
5. Solomon Friedberg ran TA Development Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS meeting in Orlando, Florida, November 2002.
6. Dr. Diane Herrmann, Senior
Lecturer and
Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of
Chicago,
ran TA Development Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at
the AMS meeting in the Courant Instititue in New York City, April 2003.
7. Dr. Diane
Herrmann,
Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the
University
of Chicago, ran TA
Development
Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS
meeting
in San Francisco, CA, May 2003.
8. Prof. Reva Kasman, Grand Valley State University, presented Teaching by Example: Case Studies for Mathematics Instructors at the 2003 Joint Annual Meeting of the Michigan Section of the Mathematical Association of America and MichMATYC, the Michigan Mathematical Association of Two Year Colleges, May 2003.
9. Prof. Solomon Friedberg prsesented the case Making
Waves at the Northeastern Section NExT meeting on June 13, 2003.
For more details, please follow this
link.
10. Dr. Diane Herrmann, Senior
Lecturer
and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of
Chicago,
discussed Case Studies in the Workshop on Training T.A.s in Departments
and
at Section Meetings at the MAA Mathfest in Boulder, CO July 2003.
11. Solomon Friedberg ran TA
Development
Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS
meeting
in Boulder, CO, October 2003.
12. Solomon Friedberg ran TA
Development
Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS
meeting
in Chapel Hill, NC, October 2003.
13. Dr. Diane
Herrmann,
Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at the
University
of Chicago, ran TA
Development
Using Case Studies: A Workshop for Faculty at the AMS
meeting
in Athens, OH, March 2004.
The BCCase case studies have been used and are being used at the following universities: Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Michigan Tech. University, Oklahoma State University, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, South Dakota State University, Texas Tech. University, The University of Arizona, The University of California at Santa Barbara, The University of Chicago, The University of Illinois at Chicago, The University of Massachusetts, The University of Memphis, The University of Michigan, The University of Oklahoma at Norman, The University of Oregon, The University of New Hampshire, The University of Washington, and Virginia Tech. Our evaluation suggests that the cases have the potential to be a significant component of your mathematics TA-development program. For more information please contact us!!
Development Team
Principal Investigator: Solomon
Friedberg
Development Team Members: Elizabeth Brown, Solomon Friedberg,
Deborah
Hughes Hallett, Reva Kasman, Margaret Kenney, Lisa Mantini, William
McCallum,
Jeremy Teitelbaum, Lee Zia, and Avner Ash
Project Evaluator: Mary Sullivan
Project Administrator (1999-2001): David Foster
Funding
The Boston College Case Studies Project was supported by FIPSE grant
number
P116B980015 from the Fund
for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, FIPSE,
administered
by the United States Department of
Education. Matching funds are provided by the Boston College
Office of the Associate
Vice President for Research and the Boston College Department of
Mathematics. Special thanks to Michael A. Smyer, Dean and
Associate Vice President for
Research, and Richard A. Jenson, former Chair of the Mathematics
Department
at Boston College for their support.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the many people who have aided us in the
development
of the case studies. Special thanks go to our technical advisors,
Katherine
Merseth of Harvard University and Dorothy Wallace of Dartmouth College,
whose
sage advice helped get the project off the ground. We also
benefited
greatly at that stage from advice by Jim Leitzel of the University of
New
Hampshire. Jim's untimely death saddened us; his memory inspires
us
still. We express our appreciation to the Boston College
administrators
who gave us the green light and ultimately committed extensive
resources
to support this project: Fr. Robert Barth, former Dean of the
College
of Arts and Sciences, Michael Smyer, Vice President for Research, and
Richard
Jenson, former Chair of the Mathematics Department. We would also like
to
thank John Neuhauser who, both as Dean of the School of Management and
later
as Academic Vice President and Dean of the Faculty at Boston College,
shared
with us and with our colleagues his extensive experience with the use
of
case studies.
Once the project got underway, we depended upon the feedback and insightful comments of mathematics graduate students from around the country who used and evaluated the case studies as we wrote and revised them. We would like to sincerely thank them all. We would like to especially mention the small group of graduate students whose initial use often led to the early demise or major revision of a case. The group included: Lynette Kelley, Sarah Lehan, Carolyn Pointek, Steven Rattendi, Ben Brubaker, Allison Pacelli, Brian Munson, Craig Friedland, Mark Evans, Jay Douglas Wright, Randy Sesto, Todd Grundmeier, Sarah James, and Amy Lehan. Parallel to the contributions of the mathematics graduate student community has been the contribution from mathematics faculty. We would like to thank the small army of faculty from around the country who have tested and evaluated the case studies. Among the faculty who provided sage council and advice were Judith Arms of The University of Washington, Margaret Balachowski of Michigan Technology University, Tina Garn of The University of Arizona, Thomas Goodwillie of Brown University, Daniel L. Goroff of Harvard University, Tim Gutmann of The University of New Hampshire, Gary Harris of Texas Tech University, Diane Herrmann of The University of Chicago, Teri Jo Murphy of The University of Oklahoma, Emma Previato of Boston University, Karen Rhea of The University of Michigan, David Rohrlich of Boston University, Ned Rosen of Boston College, Eileen T. Shugart of Virginia Tech., Glenn Stevens of Boston University, Maria Terrell of Cornell University, Steve Wheaton of The University of Arizona, and Dale Winter of Harvard University.
Finally, we would like to thank those involved with the
administration
of the project, including our first year project administrator, Elin
Norberg,
our second and third year project administrator David Foster, the
mathematics
department secretary Marilyn Adams, Susan Hoban of the BC research
office,
Jay Donahue of FIPSE, and Gwen Sneedon and Tom Seidenberg of the
Phillips
Exeter Academy, who were instrumental in our summer workshops on using
the case studies.
Training Mathematics TA's Using Case Studies
Solomon Friedberg
Department of Mathematics, Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3806
email friedber@bc.edu
It is important for mathematics graduate students to develop good teaching skills. Many institutions address this by offer TA-training programs in a great variety of formats. The Boston College Mathematics Case Studies Project, BCCase, is developing new kinds of materials---Case Studies--- to be used as components of TA-training programs for mathematics graduate students, supplementing such traditional training techniques as practicing explaining problems and videotaping.
Case Studies are narratives of realistic situations which require analysis. The use of Case Studies as a teaching tool is common in certain disciplines, such as law and business. They have been used for over 30 years in the training of university faculty, primarily in the liberal arts, and have recently become popular as a tool for training pre-collegiate teachers. Our project seeks to use this methodology at the level of graduate students in mathematics.
A Case Study is an excerpt from a teaching situation that focuses on and describes one or more of the following: the teacher's behavior, student responses, student learning or mislearning, classroom management, instructional content or practice, the relation between teacher, students, and the TA. Our Case Studies are narratives of university mathematics teaching scenarios, typically a compendium of actual situations, described from the perspectives of various students and of the instructor. Each Case raises a variety of pedagogical and communication issues, to be explored through group discussion and analysis.
Case Studies give your graduate students the chance to:
For more information on our project, please contact us directly. We greatly value all feedback from the mathematics community.