David Rock
As the recently appointed chair of UMass Dartmouth’s education department, Dr. David Rock brings to his position experience in guiding an education department as well as experience as a classroom teacher: he was a math teacher for ten years at the middle and high school levels. Rock also brings to UMass Dartmouth The Math Contest, a web site that features a mathematics “problem of the week.”
I bring the contest with me wherever I go, as I’ve moved from Florida to Mississipi and now to Massachusetts.
The contest is designed “to spark mathematical interest and enthusiasm for all ages.” It also serves to increase mathematical communication across the globe: recent successful contestants hail from across the U.S. and from a variety of countries, from Hong Kong, Turkey and Thailand to Slovenia, Belgium and Greece.
Students (and a rather large contingent of problem-solving adults) e-mail their solutions to the contest site. Rock and his student assistants send a return message to each individual, indicating whether the respondent’s solution was correct or incorrect. If the answer is correct, the student's name, school and location are listed on the contest site for worldwide recognition. Respondents with incorrect answers get hints and suggestions to help them reach the right solution.
The individual responses to each contestant “does create a bit of back up when the site takes off,” Rock admitted. “I already have 2 students working on the site with me, and expect to add more.” But Rock feels that the individual recognition and attention are part of the site’s value.
Every Monday, a new problem is placed on the site. At the end of the week, the current problem is retired to a page labeled “Past Problems."
Rock hopes that “teachers, students, and parents will continue to access and use the problems for mathematical enrichment and fun.” For that reason, he doesn’t list answers on the site. Rocks admits that this increases the work load but achieves the goal of "increasing enthusiasm for all" by continuing to challenge students. (Few would try to do the problems themselves if they could find the answers, he believes.)
In addition the Math Contest, Rock creates math problems for the educational site operated by the White House (White House Kids) and has also launched a weekly column in the New Bedford Standard Times, Dr. Rock’s Math Mystery, which presents readers with two math problems (solutions are printed the following week).
Despite his obvious enthusiasm for mathematics, Rock defines his career in terms of being a professor of education rather than a professor of mathematics.
I was working on my doctorate at University of Central Florida when one of my professors told me I had to make an important choice: to remain as a classroom teacher and have the ability to touch the lives of about 150 kids a day or become a teacher of teachers and gain the ability to touch the lives of 25 teachers who would each touch the lives of 150 kids a day.
More than anything else, I am proud to be a teacher of teachers. I enjoy teaching people how to teach mathematics.
Rock comes to UMass Dartmouth from the University of Mississippi, where he helped develop a secondary education program that spanned undergraduate, master’s and doctorate levels in education.
Hopefully, we’ll do that here as well. I see lots of opportunities at UMass Dartmouth and the great potential of the education department here. There’s a lot of support from the administration to have a strong education department that can in turn support the region’s needs in K to 12 [kindergarten to grade 12] education.
"The federal No Child Left Behind act and state requirements make the path of obtaining teacher licensure a bit complex,” Rock explains. Rather than major in education, undergraduates who aim to be teachers now must elect a “content major” such as English, mathematics, science, or history.
Rock feels strongly about the need for excellent training in teaching methods as a way to prepare individuals to be teachers and to remain in the profession.
They have to have the necessary training in pedagogy to be able to teach effectively. Training in how to teach is key. Studies have indicated that 50% of teachers quit after the first year of teaching. And another 50% quit after the first 3 years of teaching. You have to have both the content and the pedagogical theory to be a successful teacher.
Becoming an effective teacher of mathematics is more than just knowing mathematics. You can’t take an accountant and put him in a classroom and expect him to be a successful math teacher without the proper training and support. There are lots of things going on in the classroom. You have to learn about classroom management, learning styles, effective teaching strategies, and develop skills working with a variety of students.
Rock cites recent studies of student scores on standardized math tests as an example of how important pedagogical skills are:
Research has shown that students achieve higher standardized test scores in math when they had highly qualified teachers. And student scores in standardized tests are at the bottom when the teachers lacked adequate qualifications to teach.
Rock is impressed with the caliber of students he’s met at UMass Dartmouth.
As a new faculty member, I’m extremely impressed with the quality and the effort of the students inside and outside class at both the undergraduate and graduate levels: their diligence, their work ethic, their desire to learn.
I’m very excited by that. In my classes, I find that the students like the challenge and are willing to put in the time and the effort.
I’d like prospective students and their families to know that our students here at UMass Dartmouth are stimulated and challenged, and that there are opportunities to learn all around them here.
Last Updated On: 11/7/05
