Email to MED 678 Class 6/13/5

To: MED 678 Summer 2005 Class

From: Dr. H

Date: Monday, June 13, 2005

Dear Lori, Tim, Dora, DeAnna, Ricarda, Sharla, Richard, Frank, and Laurie,

It has come to my attention that the course we are beginning today has a lovely BlackBoard web site; however, there appears to be a backlog in the university's Academic Technology Services (ATS) on enrolling students into BlackBoard. I will be working with ATS to get everyone access to the UNC BlackBoard site for the course as soon as possible. In the meantime, let's get started!

I have posted a (temporary) website for the course that has the syllabus and initial reading assignments:

< http://hopper.unco.edu/faculty/personal/hauk/med678 >.

Let me tell you a bit about my plan for the course and you can email back (to me alone or to the whole class) your comments, suggestions, concerns. Particular areas where I would appreciate feedback are indicated by **Questions**. After the Plan, I have added a short introduction to myself (we will have a Discussion Activity along these lines as soon as the course is accessible to everyone). Finally, this email message closes with a preliminary listing of Assignments.

+++++ PLAN ++++

Plan for main threads and assignments...

1. Reading and writing about reading

(a) Readings from Creswell (2003) and Kelly & Lesh (2000) each week.

(b) Reading of at least one research article per week along with writing a Summary & Review essay on each of these article readings (see Syllabus for link to S&R guiding questions)

2. Preparing a mixed-methods research proposal. By the end of the course each person will have developed a proposal for a SMALL research project (not a dissertation or thesis) and will submit an IRB proposal for review at UNC. The proposal can be for action-research, evaluation research, applied research, or basic research. I will provide several examples of IRB proposals through BlackBoard.

(a) The basic idea and delimitations/limitations for the study will be due Week 1, Fri 6/17.

(b) A draft introduction will be due in Week 2, Tues 6/21.

(d) A draft Theoretical Perspective with bibliography will be due in Week 3, Tues, 6/28.

(e) The full Draft Proposal will be due in Week 3 on Thurs, 6/30.

(f) An IRB proposal (using UNC guidelines) for the research will be due in Week 4, on Tues, 7/5. The usual IRB approval process at UNC takes 2 weeks for expedited review, so you should have your IRB review back by Week 6, Wed, 7/20.

(g) The revised (final) proposal, taking into account IRB reviewer comments and classmate/instructor comments, will be due in Week 6 on the last day of class, Fri, 7/22.

3. Ethical Research

(a) Discussion Activities will include Synthesis prompts that address the readings on this topic we will do.

(b) Each of us will complete an on-line workshop on ethical research activity through the NIH (National Institutes of Health). This workshop, though focused on biological research on human subjects, is required of the researcher by many university Institutional Review Boards before that researchers proposal(s) can be considered.

4. Interview Activity in Weeks 3, 4, 5. I will provide the basic protocol for the interview - which you can modify as needed - and will ask each of you to conduct a task-based interview of one other person (someone not in the class) who has mathematics or science teaching experience.

**Question**: Would you prefer to do this activity before or after you hear/read transcriptions of parts of my own version of conducting the mathematics interview with two teacher-participants?

OKAY, so you got this far. Next, let me tell you a bit about myself. After that, this message ends with the first two reading/writing assignments.

++++ About Dr. H ++++

My full name is Shandy Hauk though I prefer to be addressed as Dr. Hauk (or Dr. H) by students. My cultural background is steeped in diversity and low- to mid-socio-economic status. Some of my professional history is available through my curriculum vitae. I have also produced a (very long) Teaching Portfolio. Links to both of these can be found on my homepage: < http://hopper.unco.edu/faculty/personal/hauk/index.html >.

Though I was a professional actor, I do not care to have my picture taken. I always feel as if part of my life-energy is appropriated by casual photography. Yes, I know most people don't feel that way. Good thing too or a lot of professional development video-case work would not exist. My work as an actor was on the stage (mostly). I actually left acting as a career because I seemed only able to get television and movie work - which entailed a great deal of picture taking! After a short stint as a jobbing gardener (mowing lawns, cleaning gutters, clipping shrubs) and a few years as a K-12 short- and long-term substitute teacher, I became a high school English teacher. Then I was a high school English AND mathematics teacher. Then I quit my job, mortgaged my little ranch house, and enrolled in all of the undergraduate mathematics courses at the University of California campus near my house. Two years later I had finished my master's degree in mathematics and had married a fellow graduate student (and am still happy with our marriage, yay!). Two years after the master's, I finished my Ph.D. dissertation in partial differential equations and took a job as an assistant professor at a small liberal arts college. Four years later, I wrote a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a post-doc in mathematics education at Arizona State University (ASU). The NSF funded it. From 1999-2001 I was at ASU, essentially doing a second Ph.D. in mathematics education. In 2001 I was hired at the University of Northern Colorado as an assistant professor in mathematics. I have been teaching graduate mathematics education courses and my favorite undergraduate mathematics course (Math for Liberal Arts) since then.

In five years I hope to still be working on research in mathematics education, to have funding for pursuing my goals of creating a collection of case materials for preparing college mathematics teachers to teach, and to be consulting for national private and government policy-makers in education. Ironically, my plans for professional development of college mathematics teachers include having myself video-taped as I teach. Somehow I'm willing to spend life-energy taken up by video-taping as I teach when I wasn't willing to spend it on television and film. Let's not examine that too closely just now, hmmm?

My own experiences in learning mathematics have been pretty horrific. Just a few examples follow. In first grade I was slapped for talking (I had finished my mathematics tasks) and ordered to teach a classmate how to do addition as "punishment." My parents moved around a lot so I ended up in three different schools in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. At each one I was put into Algebra. I was pretty tired of it by 8th grade so I got into plenty of trouble (just like 1st grade, hmmm). In high school, 9th grade, I had a geometry course with Ms. Andrews (a pseudonym). Ms. Andrews put all the girls in the back two rows (of five) in the room, and the boys in the front two rows. I failed geometry along with most of my female classmates. My mother went to the principal in her flowing-scarfs-I'm-a-poet sort of way and he agreed to "allow" me to work through a year-long self-paced geometry course. I finished the thing in six weeks. So, I appear to have a talent in mathematics. I just have never got on with the culture and syntax of mathematics in school and university. Teaching mathematics (K-12 and collegiate) has been interesting and enjoyable, though I do not care to teach the "smart kids" much (that's what my majority-culture colleagues call them). I am still working out how to deal with middle-class majority enculturated folks so I don't insult anyone (myself or them). This is not to say I am not capable of appalling just about anyone, I'm sure I am. Please, if I step on toes, let me know directly. [Note: Um, I'd appreciate the heads-up personally, in email, rather than in a public forum (e.g., the Discussion Board), thanks].

++++ Assignments ++++

Now, on to the things for you to get started on. Please, email me to let me know the answers to the following questions:

**Question** Do you have the Creswell (2003) book?

**Question** Do you have the Kelly & Lesh (2000) book?

Preliminary Assignments List

See Syllabus < http://hopper.unco.edu/faculty/personal/hauk/med678/med678ss05syllabus.htm > for complete bibliographic information on readings.

Due Assignment

Wed. 6/15 9pm Read the first two chapters of Creswell (2003) book. A

Discussion Activity for this reading will happen in the

BlackBoard course area from 6/15, 9am to 6/17, 9am.

Thu. 6/16 9pm Answer the Summary & Review questions for a research

article you choose and read from those listed in the Syllabus.

Submit your Summary & Review to me via email

< hauk@unco.edu > by Thursday, 6/16 at 9pm.

Fri, 6/17, 9pm The basic idea and delimitations/limitations for your study

proposal due.

If BlackBoard access is available to everyone by this date, the

assignment will be due through BlackBoard.

Tues, 6/21, 9pm A draft introduction for your proposal due. The assignment

will be due through BlackBoard.

Thur, 6/23, 9pm A draft Literature Review along with bibliography for your

proposal due. Submit through BlackBoard.