Math problems? Have no fear: Miroslav Lovric is here

Athletes train in the off-season. Musicians practice in between tours. So why do students assume that in the months between the end of high school and the beginning of university they won't lose some of the math skills they worked so hard to learn?

That's the question facing Miroslav Lovric, professor of mathematics and statistics and winner of this year's Adrien Pouliot Award from the Canadian Mathematical Society – an award earned not because of his math research, but because of his research into teaching math.

Early in his career Lovric, who began teaching at McMaster nearly 20 years ago, noticed students in his first year classes having difficulties with basic math skills. He began investigating the transition from high school to university and eventually started conducting an annual study of his students' backgrounds in math. The unannounced survey, performed in the first week of class, gives Lovric unique insight into the attitudes first year students hold toward math.

“You hear a lot of 'math sucks' and 'my high school math teacher was terrible' and things like that,” said Lovric, “but I just tell the students that high school is over and they're getting a fresh start.”

Using the information gleaned from his research, Lovric put together a popular review manual called Calculus: Fear No More, meant to highlight the aspects of math that his surveys showed were the most difficult or overlooked by students in his courses.

Recognizing that students are only one part of the math education equation, Lovric also helped introduce a “teaching mathematics” course for undergraduate teaching assistants meant to assist teaching assistants in adapting to the needs of students.

“Students need to recognize their own strengths and weakness in mathematics, but so do instructors,” said Lovric. “If we can better tailor our teaching to the needs of our students then we can show them that there are many avenues for them to apply their skills in mathematics.”

Many of those avenues lead to good jobs with companies such as Google and Yahoo, who hire mathematicians to develop complex algorithms, or with governments which need to collect large amounts of data. Unfortunately, as Lovric notes, these jobs aren't well-known – “they don't make TV shows about mathematicians” – and so many students undervalue math skills.

“My work is about more than just helping students learn math,” said Lovric. “It's about showing them that they can open many doors for themselves if they can stick with it, even if mathematics isn't their primary field of study.”

As for the award, Lovric says that he is honoured to have his work recognized by his peers and that he will use that recognition to further his research.

“It feels very good to be chosen by the mathematical society, but the most important thing is that I'll be able to use it to draw attention to the opportunities we have to help students study and stick with math.”