Math professor Maggie Cummings’ ultimate goal is to foster student intuition in learning, earning her this year’s Excellence in Education award on April 15.
Cummings, whose classroom catchphrase is “open your heart and think,” tells students that to build a foundation in math, they must actively think about and question situations. She averages between 300 and 500 students per year at the U, teaching mainly college algebra, trigonometry and secondary methods for teaching majors.
These entry-level quantitative literacy courses not only meet a general education requirement — drawing in many freshmen — but also “are a way to change how students think about the world and the problems they face,” Cummings said.
The fifth-year professor compared her approach to teaching math to learning how to read.
“Nowadays we expect that all students can learn to read and all third graders will meet the third grade reading level.” Cummings said. “That logic hasn’t been applied to math yet.”
Cummings believes that not only can all students do the math that is expected of them, but they can understand it as well.
“There’s nothing that isn’t completely intuitive about math,” she said.
Cummings taught middle school and high school students for more than 11 years before transitioning to UVU, SLCC and then the U. As a professor, she sees herself as the “enactor” of the mission of the university — to serve students through the discovery, creation and application of knowledge.
“If students say, ‘Why do I have to take this class?’ then I’m not doing my job,” she said.
Students at the U’s LDS Institute of Religion, which presents the awards, decide which professor receives the annual honor by voting in a survey.
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