BY PELİN SU UZUNCAGİL (AMER/II)
su.uzuncagil@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Asst. Prof. Anita Alexander is an instructor in the Department of Educational Sciences. She received her BSc from Ohio University in Secondary Education & Integrated Mathematics, her MS from Kent State University in Pure Mathematics, and her PhD from Kent State University in Curriculum & Instruction. Her research interest is the teaching norms and instructional strategies of both secondary and post-secondary mathematics instructors, with a focus on Inquiry-Based Learning, Differentiation, and STEM Education. She also enjoys teaching people how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. She teaches “Thesis Seminar” (CI 509), “Trends and Issues in Instruction” (CI 515), “Special Teaching Methods” (CI 551), “Issues and Trends in Education” (CI 611), “Assessing Student Learning and Process” (CI 508) and “Educational Statistics” (CI 604).
Why did you choose an academic career?
I thought I could affect more change in education that way. I used to teach high school math. I went back to school so I could become a teacher educator.
Why/how did you choose Bilkent? What do you like the most about being at Bilkent?
I chose Bilkent for its graduate school of education. I get to work with both preservice and inservice teachers. We have a master’s and PhD program, and we are working with great students. The students are my favorite part of Bilkent.
What projects are you working on currently?
I am working with undergraduate and graduate Mathematics students on “effective practice in teaching mathematics in university.” The students in our program are either inservice teachers or studying to be teachers, but there are also some students in the mathematics department that are going to become professors but haven’t had any teaching courses. So, we get together to talk about effective ways to teach advanced mathematics.
What’s your best work?
I’d like to think it’s the work that I am doing right now. Eventually I’d like to create a course. It would be a seminar course in which we meet and collaborate. I’d like it to be for people who are interested in learning about effective practice in teaching.
What excites you about your work? What’s the coolest thing about your work?
What excites me is having the opportunity to motivate teachers and future educators to increase engagement, inquiry and discourse. We do fun puzzles and games to motivate critical thinking. It’s exciting to work with teachers who are already passionate about what they do. They are in graduate school because they are lifelong learners and they want to improve upon their practice. The cool part is that our department is Curriculum and Instruction, so we are all from different backgrounds. My background is mathematics, but I work with a lot of teachers in the English Language and Literature and Biology and Science departments as well as other areas and different grade levels. We get to collaborate with each other. I really like interdisciplinary work as well.
Could you share a turning point or defining moment in your career?
When I was teaching high school mathematics, I started presenting at conferences on effective practice in teaching. I realized then that I wanted to be a teacher educator, so I went back to school for that.
What has been the most exciting moment of your career so far?
That is a tough question because I’ve been teaching for 20 years. There are so many exciting moments. Last semester I was working with preservice teachers and they were doing student teaching. Some of them were at BLIS, and I got to go into one of the classrooms where one of my former students teaches. It was really exiting to witness her as a current educator and to see her as a mentor to a preservice teacher.
What’s one piece of information from your field that you think everyone should know?
Inquiry and discourse are very important for students’ conceptual understanding at any age level and in any content area.
When and where do you do your best thinking?
It depends because there are two aspects of my job, and they are very different: teaching and research. When our graduate students are writing their thesis or dissertation, we suggest they create an ideal writing environment. Our writing environment is different from where we do other things like research and teaching, so I think it is important to create an environment for different aspects of our jobs.
What distracts you?
Sometimes planning engaging lessons distracts me from my research, but I try to separate the different aspects of my job.
What are you most curious about?
How to support current teachers who are interested in learning about engaging practices but don’t have a background in education. Many of my friends and colleagues here have degrees in their specialty and really care about their students’ learning and engagement. They ask me about it often, which is great. I’m curious about how to support instructors and professors that are interested in learning more about teaching and learning practices.
What’s the most common misconception about your work?
People don’t believe that the strategies we used in high school mathematics translate to university mathematics. They do look different. In our seminar we talk about how there’s a big difference between high school level and advanced mathematics, but some of the strategies can be implemented in both types of content.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I like to read but I don’t have much time for “fun” reading right now. Most of the things that I read are academic. I used to go dancing more than I do now. I used to coach a high school dance team. That was always fun.
Which books have influenced you the most, and why?
I am currently reading “What If? 2” by Randall Monroe. He has a science background. He worked for NASA, and he answers everyone’s absurd scientific questions accurately but in a funny way. I think it would be a great way to teach science. I really like his books because they are LOL funny but also informative.
If you weren’t an academician, what career would you choose?
I’d do consultancy work in schools.
What’s the secret to leading a happy life?
Being passionate about what you do and balancing your personal and professional life.
If you could go back to your undergraduate/graduate student years, what advice would you give to your younger-self?
Well, my undergraduate advice and my graduate advice are very different. For my undergraduate self, the best advice would be to learn time management. This is what we tell our students right now. I would tell my graduate self to start thinking about structuring and writing my thesis earlier instead of after my course work. In our program we try to get students to start writing as soon as possible. For my master’s program, I did my course work and then my thesis. In my PhD we did kind of synchronize the work. Sometimes students think that the course work and thesis are separate, but they should actually be more integrated. It helps with productivity and making more connections.
