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UMass Dartmouth establishes James J. Kaput Center for Research and Innovation in Mathematics Education
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he James J. Kaput Center for Research and Innovation in Mathematics Education, named for the late UMass Dartmouth professor whose innovative thinking and leadership inspired researchers and teachers around the world, opened in March. The goal of the center is to engage students as early as kindergarten in the concepts that are the foundations of algebra and calculus. Fundamental problems in mathematics education will be studied, discussed and analyzed through conferences, basic research, commissioned reports, and think-tank meetings. “Improving the teaching and learning of mathematics is a major national security issue for this country and the Kaput At left, business students in Professor Godwin Ariguzo’s marketing class project a marketing plan for the university. A virtual reality chamber in the College of Visual and Performing Arts allows design students to interactively view student work.
largely pursuing its own course when it comes to technology, Green says, but there is communication and sharing. “We try to see where the synergy is. We learn from each other.” He sees the University of Massachusetts system moving to the technological cutting-edge among its peers. “We’re not way out front, but we’re positioning ourselves well. Within our resources, we’re doing what we can.” Carrera, who specializes in ancient art and culture, is one of UMass Dartmouth’s most passionate advocates for the use of high technology. She finds no irony or contradiction between what she has devoted her life to as a scholar and her championship of technological change: “I’ve always wanted to do the next thing and to be challenged.” In fact, she sees it as seamless and completely logical. “The Maya were the group who came up with the concept of ‘zero.’ It’s about a quality of mind and an amazing vision of the world. And isn’t that what we’re doing now? “I am a teacher, and I will do whatever it takes to help my students learn,” she says. “The material is the material, but today, why would you want to use only a whiteboard?” Robert Lovinger is senior writer with Lifespan in Providence.
SimCalc MathWorlds™ is a cross-platform software, which incorporates computers, TI graphing calculators, and wireless networks, to help students learn core mathematical concepts in dynamic, interactive ways.
center is dedicated to this task,’’ said Dr. Stephen Hegedus, director of the center. “Unless we change the way children learn math in the early grades and create new technology to advance learning, our high schools and colleges will be turning out a generation of graduates who are ill-equipped to compete in the global economy.’’ Dr. Hegedus and his colleagues at the center—Drs. Maria Blanton and Luis Moreno Armella — have been working with teachers and students in Fall River, Wareham, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, New Bedford, and many other Massachusetts communities in developing new methods to engage younger students in the concepts of advanced mathematical thinking. Key to the strategy is encouraging students and teachers to engage in a dialogue—even debate—about the concepts rather than simply have the teacher lecture about content. The center also has begun international collaborative projects with Mexico, Colombia, England, Greece, and Singapore.
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Spring 2007