Hans Wallin lectures #4 - Frank Lester & Diana Lambdin

Frank Lester

Frank K. Lester, Jr. is Emeritus Chancellor’s Professor of Mathematics Education and of Cognitive Science at Indiana University, from which he retired in 2008.  His primary research interests lie in the areas of mathematical problem solving and metacognition, especially with respect to problem-solving instruction at the primary and middle school levels.  A special feature of his research has been his commitment to transforming research results into practice.

He has served as a visiting scholar or lecturer at universities in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Sweden. A much-sought-after speaker, he has lectured in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, South and Central America, and throughout the United States on mathematical problem solving, alternative assessment, and the nature of research in mathematics education.  His extensive collaboration with mathematics educators in the Nordic countries is especially noteworthy.  Two emphases of both his national and international speaking engagements have been how to “teach via problem solving” and how to conduct research that “makes a difference” in the education of children.

From 1991 until 1996 he was editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), the leading English-language research journal in mathematics education.  He also was editor of the Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning published in 2007.  This two-volume compendium stands as a capstone to his career as a mathematics educator.

His appointment in 2000 to an endowed Chair of Teacher Education at his university was based largely on his national and international reputation as a scholar and teacher educator. In 2006 he was awarded a university Chancellor’s Professorship in Teaching and Research in recognition of his contributions to the University and to the national and international mathematics education community.  In 2008 he received the first-ever Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Mathematics Teacher Education by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and a Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  And, in 2008, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy degree by Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland.

Currently he is co-editing a series of books to be published by Routledge Publishers on the implications for teaching of research on learning algebra, calculus, geometry, probability and statistics, and discrete mathematics.

Diana Lambdin

Diana V. Lambdin is Professor Emerita of Mathematics Education at Indiana University, where she taught undergraduate and graduate courses for prospective elementary teachers and co-directed a combination masters-degree and elementary teacher certification program for career changing adults from 1991-2012.  She also served as Associate Dean for Teacher Education from 2001-2006 and was honored with the title Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chair for Teacher Education in 2005.  In 1998, Dr. Lambdin was a visiting scholar at the University of Gothenberg and a consultant to Sweden’s National Center for Mathematics Education (NCM). Prior to joining the Indiana University faculty, Dr. Lambdin taught mathematics at a variety of levels and to a diversity of students:  to middle school students in a private school in Marblehead, Massachusetts; to high school students at a public school in Ypsilanti, Michigan; and to entry level college students and prospective teachers at Iowa State University.  She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in mathematics from the University of Delaware and earned her Ph.D. in mathematics education from Indiana University in 1988. 

Dr. Lambdin has been active in mathematics education as an author, editor, and project evaluator.  From 1996-2000 she was book review editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, after serving as associate editor (1992-1995) and associate editor of the journal’s monograph series (1988-1992).  She was a member of the writing team for Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and a member of the NCTM Board of Directors from 2009-2012.  She has written widely about mathematical problem solving, mathematics teaching, and teacher education, in publications including Arithmetic Teacher and Teaching Children Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, Mathematics Teacher, Nämnaren, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, For the Learning of Mathematics, and Journal of Educational Research.

Dr. Lambdin has been a frequent speaker at local, regional, national and international meetings of a variety of teacher-related organizations, including the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the North American and International Groups for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.