This panel focuses on

• Undergraduate mathematics curriculum development and design

• Tension between desirable assessment approaches and the pragmatics of administering and grading final exams

• Proposed changes

Panelists

Vincent Bouchard* (University of Alberta)

Fok-Shuen Leung (University of British Columbia)

Wesley Maciejewski (Red Deer Polytechnic)

Asia Matthews* (Quest University)

Moderator

Kitty Yan (University of Toronto)

Bios

Vincent Bouchard is a Professor in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta. He obtained his D.Phil. in Mathematics from University of Oxford in 2005, as a Rhodes scholar. He held postdoctoral fellowships in University of Pennsylvania, Mathematical Science Research Institute in Berkeley, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, and Harvard University, before joining University of Alberta in 2009. His research focuses on exploring new mathematical structures physically motivated by modern physics, which often give rise to unexpected connections between mathematical objects that appear a priori unrelated. He is passionate about teaching, and likes to think about how anarchist ideas can inspire us to transform math education and make it much more interesting and relevant.

Fok-Shuen Leung obtained his doctoral degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford. He is a Professor of Teaching and Undergraduate Chair of the Mathematics Department at the University of British Columbia, winner of the Canadian Mathematical Society Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Education Prize, and two-time winner of the Killam Teaching Prize.

Wes Maciejewski received his Ph.D. from Queen's University, with a dissertation on discrete mathematics applied to questions in biological evolution. Since then, he has held positions at UBC in the mathematics department and the Carl Weiman Science Education Initiative, was visiting faculty at the University of Auckland, and an associate professor at San José State University. Wes is currently faculty at Red Deer Polytechnic in his home province of Alberta. He maintains an active research program in mathematics education.

Asia Matthews earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics from Queen’s University with a research focus on undergraduate mathematics education. Her interests include mathematical thinking, preparing learners for responsible global citizenship, interdisciplinary education, and mathematics curriculum focused on processes rather than content. She spent eight years teaching at Quest University where she designed many seminar-style courses for mathematics and interdisciplinary education, including a foundational course in mathematical thinking and mathematics communication, and an interdisciplinary modelling course built on quantitative reasoning and rhetoric. Students at Quest rated Asia’s courses among the best in Quest’s history. Since Quest closed in 2023, Asia has been doing a whole lot of unpaid work.

Kitty Yan was a mathematics teacher before she earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education at OISE, University of Toronto. She is currently a Postdoc Fellow at OISE, working with Dean and Professor Walker. Her research interests include proof and proving at the secondary and undergraduate levels, relevance and contribution of academic mathematics studies to secondary school mathematics teaching, and use and integration of proof technology to enhance concept development.

*The panelist will attend online.