Lee Stiff
Lee Vernon Stiff (born 1949) is an American mathematics education researcher, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education at North Carolina State University,[1] and the author of several mathematics textbooks.
Stiff's father was "a factory worker with only a third-grade education".[2] Stiff studied mathematics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1971, and went on to earn a masters degree from Duke University in 1974 and a doctorate in mathematics education from North Carolina State University in 1978.[3][4] After teaching mathematics at the middle school and high school levels, and then holding a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte beginning in 1978, he returned to NCSU in 1983.[3]
From 2000 to 2002 Stiff was president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.[5] Under his leadership, the NCTM pushed for a greater emphasis on basic computational skills in elementary and secondary school mathematics education, and for an appropriate emphasis on conceptual understanding.[6] Stiff rejected simple solutions to complex issues, saying that "Back to basics is moving backward. Number-crunching alone is no longer enough."[7] Instead, Stiff has recommended better training and incentives for mathematics teachers, a teaching style that incorporates a variety of ways of looking at the same material, and an attitude that all students can learn mathematics regardless of their background.[2][8]
In 1995 he was a Fulbright scholar in Ghana.[9] In 2009 he was an NCSU College Distinguished Award recipient,[10] and in 2010 the NCSU College of Education gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award.[3]
References
- ^ Faculty listing, MSTE, NCSU, retrieved 2011-03-20.
- ^ a b Thompson, Lynn (August 2, 2006), "Why do teens fail math? "It ain't the kids"", Seattle Times.
- ^ a b c Distinguished Alumni Award Archived 2011-08-13 at the Wayback Machine, NCSU College of Education, retrieved 2011-03-20.
- ^ Lee Vernon Stiff at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.
- ^ NCTM past presidents, retrieved 2011-03-20.
- ^ Hartcollis, Anemona (April 13, 2000), "Math Teachers Back Return Of Education in Basic Skills", New York Times.
- ^ Greenberger, Scott S. (July 26, 2000), "Educators Adopt New Guidelines for Math", Boston Globe. Reprinted in California Online Mathematics Education Times, Vol. 1, No. 18, July 2000.
- ^ Flowers, Tanner (March 4, 2008), "Math placement, not background, leaves students behind, professor says", Columbia Missourian.
- ^ Fulbright directory Archived 2012-08-04 at archive.today, accessed 2011-03-20.
- ^ NCSU College Distinguished Award Recipients, retrieved 2011-03-20.
External links
- 1941 births
- Living people
- African-American mathematicians
- 20th-century American mathematicians
- 21st-century American mathematicians
- Mathematics educators
- Duke University alumni
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
- North Carolina State University alumni
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte faculty
- North Carolina State University faculty
- Fulbright Scholars