Teacher Education Group

This group of faculty is especially interested in the mathematics education of teachers. They have been active in designing, improving, and studying the effectiveness of courses that are either expressly for prospective teachers, or are taken by many prospective teachers. In these initiatives, mathematics faculty collaborate with faculty in the College of Education, and particularly the Department of Mathematics Education.

Ed Azoff
My involvement with teacher education includes:

• teaching preservice courses

for elementary school teachers: MATH 1700 (MAT 205, 206
under quarters)
for high school teachers: "transition" courses including linear algebra (3000),
sequences and series (3100), and introduction to proof (3200)
algebra (4000, 4010)
geometry (5200)
probability (5560)

• service on committees of graduate students in mathematics education
  
• informal discussions with other faculty members in this group and in
  mathematics education
  
• service on the statewide committee advising the Georgia Early
  Mathematics Placement Testing Program

Sybilla Beckmann
In recent years I have focused on an issue that I believe to be of great importance, namely, how to prepare elementary and middle grades teachers so that they will be effective teachers of mathematics.
There is widespread agreement that the mathematical education of children in the US today needs improvement and that the nature of teachers' understanding of mathematics is likely to be a key component in such an improvement. Professionals in the field also agree that teachers of mathematics must develop a deep understanding of the mathematics they will teach and that this understanding must be fostered explicitly in college courses for prospective teachers. In response to this need, I have developed 3 mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers and have written a book for use in such courses, published by Addison-Wesley. The courses and the book are designed to help elementary school teachers develop a deep understanding of the mathematics they will teach.

I am involved in a number of local, state, and national projects for the professional development of teachers and teacher educators, including projects with the Center for Proficiency in the Teaching of Mathematics, PRISM, and GSTEP. As part of these projects, I work regularly with teachers, school children, and faculty in the College of Education. During the 2004/2005 school year I am teaching math to an average class of 6th graders at a local public school. I am a member of the Expert Advisory Board for the development of the K-12 Georgia Performance Standards in mathematics.

Clint McCrory
I received a 1999-2000 UGA Learning Technologies Grant for the development of the geometry sequence for future high school teachers. My students use the software Geometer's Sketchpad and Kaleidomania to do experiments in plane geometry and transformations. I am particularly interested in teaching the use of Geometer's Sketchpad as an aid to writing proofs. I'm a member of the High School Mathematics Curriculum Team of GSTEP, the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program.

Ted Shifrin
Although I pursued an academic career in mathematics because of a strong desire to be a force as a teacher, it is only recently that I've realized how large an influence talented and dedicated teachers really have on future teachers and hence on the future of our society. We are on one hand the models of what one should do in the "arena." But our influence can be more pervasive: I wrote my textbook Abstract Algebra: A Geometric Approach as a text for future secondary teachers, adopting an atypical approach that I think is pedagogically preferable. I will continue to teach future teachers (primary and secondary) throughout my career at UGA.

Further Information:

The Graduate Bulletin of our department with information for prospective graduate students is available online. If you are interested in graduate studies in (real or complex, classical or modern) analysis and you would like further information on our group, do not hesitate to contact any of us.