Elizabeth Fennema
Ann Elizabeth Fennema (née Hammer; April 8, 1928 – December 20, 2021) was an American educator specializing in the teaching of mathematics.
Early life and education
Fennema was born in
University of Wisconsin
in 1952.
In 1962
new math
" was in vogue and many educators were thinking deeply about how to teach mathematical understanding to students. Fennema recognized the importance of a good foundation in mathematics was critical for all students leading to her interest in math education.
Career
After finishing her PhD she was hired as a half time, non-
tenured
track, position. In 1970 the University created part-time tenured-track positions and Fennema obtained one of the positions.
Fennema and
research grant to examine factors in mathematics classroom that might be associated with gender, resulting in the "Fennema-Sherman studies". Fennema and her associates have spent over 25 years researching interactions of girls and young women in mathematics classrooms. One outgrowth of this was a questionnaire, the "Fennema-Sherman Scales" to enable researchers to gather data on the attitudes of young women towards mathematics, and the results from different sites compared. She and her colleagues have also developed an innovative method of teaching mathematics called Cognitively Guided Instruction. The Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) philosophy is detailed in Children's Mathematics which she co-authored with Thomas Carpenter, Megan Loef Franke, Linda Levi, and Susan Empson
.
She retired from the University of Wisconsin at the end of the 1995–1996 academic year.
Awards
Fennema received the first Annual Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research on Women and Education from the
Special Interest Group
for Research on Women in Education) in 1985.
She received the Dora Helen Skypek Award from the Association for Women and Mathematics Education in 1986.
She received a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Mary College in 1994. She received the 2021 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Lifetime Achievement Award.[2]
Personal life and death
Fennema married Owen Fennema in 1948. She died on December 20, 2021.[3]
References
- ^ "Ann Elizabeth Hammer Fennema". Mac Tutor. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
- ^ "Elizabeth Fennema - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics". www.nctm.org. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
- ^ "UW–Madison's Elizabeth Fennema, celebrated for her research on gender and mathematics education, dies". University of Wisconsin-Madison. 23 December 2021. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
Sources
- Notable Women in Mathematics, a Biographical Dictionary, edited by Charlene Morrow and Teri Perl, Greenwood Press, 1998. pp 51–56
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