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Patricia D. Shure

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Patricia D. Shure is an American mathematics educator. With Morton Brown and B. Alan Taylor, she is known for developing "Michigan calculus", a style of teaching calculus and combining cooperative real-world problem solving by the students with an instructional focus on conceptual understanding.[1][2][3] She is a senior lecturer emerita of mathematics at the University of Michigan, where she taught from 1982 until her retirement in 2006.[1]

Education and career

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Shure did both her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Michigan, earning a bachelor's degree in 1958 and a master's degree in 1960. After working as a secondary school teacher for two decades, she returned to Michigan in 1982 as coordinator for mathematics and science in the Coalition for the Use of Learning Skills. She also became a lecturer in mathematics, and later a senior lecturer.[1]

Mathematics education

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At Michigan, she played a key role not just in teaching mathematics, but in training the other instructors and graduate students there to be good teachers of mathematics.[4] Her work on calculus reform began in 1992;[1] it was based in part on the "Harvard calculus" project led by Andrew M. Gleason, and her instructor training materials have been widely used at other universities.[4] With Gleason and others, she became the author of a widely used precalculus textbook, Functions Modeling Change: A Preparation for Calculus (Wiley, 2000; 5th ed., 2017).[1][5] The program she initiated at Michigan continues in successful use there.[2]

Recognition

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In 2001 the Association for Women in Mathematics gave Shure their Louise Hay Award for her contributions to mathematics education.[4] In the same year she became the AWM/MAA Falconer Lecturer, speaking on "The Scholarship of Learning and Teaching: A Look Back and a Look Ahead".[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e The Regents of the University of Michigan, "Memoir: Patricia D. Shure", Faculty History Project, University of Michigan, retrieved 2018-04-29
  2. ^ a b Carreon, Fernando; DeBacker, Stephen; Kessenich, Paul; Kubena, Angela; LaRose, P. Gavin (June 2017), "What is old is new again: A systemic approach to the challenges of calculus instruction", PRIMUS, 28 (6): 476–507, doi:10.1080/10511970.2017.1315474, S2CID 125720077
  3. ^ Pobojewski, Sally (December 12, 1994), "First-year math class teaches more than formulas", The University Record
  4. ^ a b c 11th Louise Hay Award: Patricia D. Shure, Association for Women in Mathematics, retrieved 2018-04-29. Reprinted in "AWM Awards Presented in New Orleans" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 48 (5): 509, May 2001
  5. ^ Ruane, P. N. (June 2005), "Review of Functions Modeling Change: A Preparation for Calculus (2nd ed., 2004)", MAA Reviews, Mathematical Association of America
  6. ^ Past Falconer Lecturers, Association for Women in Mathematics, retrieved 2018-04-29