Professor Gichobi is teaching aspiring teachers Mathematics in a new way

Students in the Professional Program in Education are fortunate to have Assistant Prof. Mary Gichobi teaching EDUC 281 Conceptual Foundations of Elementary Mathematics. The course teaches aspiring teachers how to teach mathematics concepts common to the curriculum of elementary and middle schools.

Mary Gichobi
Assistant Professor
Education Program

Gichobi covers areas such as the processes of abstraction, symbolic representation and notational manipulation in arithmetic contexts as well as examines topics such as multiplying and dividing fractions, decimals and ratio and proportional reasoning using different strategies”.

“Gichobi has been innovative and unflappable in moving her on-campus courses to alternate delivery,” according to Dean Susan Gallagher-Lepak.

In teaching EDUC 281, she goes through her PowerPoint slides and solves mathematical problems as she explains them, sort of like a narrated PowerPoint, but uses a software called Xodo to write on the PowerPoint. She screen records as she writes and then compresses it to a video using MP4.

Gichobi’s analytical strengths are equally balanced by a student-centered approach to teaching.

Animation of Mary Gichobi writing notes on her PowerPoint lesson.

“I always feel that our students deserve support and guidance to go through the challenging terrain of life,” Gichobi said. “They may get stuck and not know who to ask. I feel passionate to help them in little and any ways.”

Students seem to appreciate Gichobi’s efforts. One student communicated this week to Gichobi the below message:

“I would like to thank you for your video of the lesson… It was refreshing to hear you teach the lesson and explain it in detail. It makes this change feel more like being in class. Thank you for all your hard work in making this transition so smooth. I can’t imagine it has been easy for you or the other professors.”