Abstract
My career as a mathematics education researcher began in 1978 when I entered the master’s program in mathematics education at the University of Georgia. Prior to moving to Georgia with my wife Jenny, I had completed my undergraduate degree in mathematics at Bristol University in England and was a secondary math teacher for 2 years. Our primary reason for going to Georgia was simply our wish to seize the opportunity to travel. The mathematics education department chaired by James W. Wilson had offered me a graduate assistantship that covered tuition and provided a modest stipend. We had originally planned to spend just 16 months in the US but our plans changed when I became interested in the radical constructivism of Les Steffe and Ernst von Glasersfeld. We eventually spent five happy years in Athens, Georgia, where I finished my master’s degree and then completed a doctorate in mathematics education.
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Notes
- 1.
John later became senior education advisor to CNN, the US cable news network.
- 2.
The findings of this teaching experiment were eventually published in Steffe and Cobb (1988). In my doctoral dissertation, I analyzed the six children’s development of thinking or derived fact strategies.
- 3.
Ken moved from Australia to begin his doctoral studies in science education at the University of Georgia at the same time that I entered the masters program in mathematics education.
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Cobb, P. (2010). Introduction. In: Sfard, A., Gravemeijer, K., Yackel, E. (eds) A Journey in Mathematics Education Research. Mathematics Education Library, vol 48. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9729-3_2
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