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from the issue of April 20, 2006
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Heaton builds career teaching teachers
BY TROY FEDDERSON, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Career motivation lies close to Ruth Heaton's heart.
| | OTICA RECIPIENT - Ruth Heaton, associate professor in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, discusses a course project with graduate students Carrie Campbell (left) and Maria Salotti. Heaton received the the Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award for her classroom work. Photo by Troy Fedderson/University Communications.
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"I have a fifth-grade son who I care deeply about and I also care about his education," said Heaton, associate professor in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. "I see the importance of teachers in his life and that motivates me to want to be a good teacher of teachers."
Starting with 10 years in elementary classrooms, Heaton built a career that expanded to the collegiate level. She is a math teacher by choice, and has worked to better educate the next generation of educators since joining UNL in 1995.
Heaton also remembers her roots. Joining forces with Jim Lewis, professor of mathematics, Heaton reaches out to middle school teachers via the Math in the Middle program. And, over the last nine years, Heaton has forged contacts with Lincoln Public Schools, helping strengthen math education at the elementary level.
For her efforts, Heaton was awarded the 2006 Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award. The OTICA is a universitywide honor given annually to two of the University of Nebraska's most outstanding educators.
"It's sort of lovely as a teacher to be recognized in this way," Heaton said. "Teachers don't often get recognition for the work that they do. And, it's because it doesn't happen very often that this kind of recognition is wonderful."
Family role models fueled Heaton's career aspirations at a young age.
"My grandmother was a teacher and my older sister is a teacher," Heaton said. "Those are two people that I admired and it led me into teaching."
She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education at the University of Minnesota. Her area of focus was mathematics.
"I always liked math," Heaton said. "It was always something I did well in."
She transitioned from college life to the elementary classroom. She taught at the elementary level for 10 years - in Rosemount, Minn., a bi-lingual school in Berlin, Germany, then in public schools in Morrisville, Vt., and East Lansing, Mich.
Heaton started graduate school at Michigan State while she taught fourth grade in East Lansing. And, it was there that Heaton became interested in researching education.
While pursuing her doctorate, Heaton received a research assistantship that examined math education methods in California schools.
"Those teachers were trying to teach math in more conceptual ways," Heaton said. "It was like nothing I had ever experienced as a teacher. And, it got me thinking about if I could teach math in that same way."
That line of thought pushed Heaton to tweak her teaching methods, which led to a dissertation topic.
"I had two mentors at Michigan State (Deborah Ball and Magdalene Lampert) and both are known for being teacher educators and being researchers of their own teaching," Heaton said. "They got me thinking about what it would mean to do research on one's own teaching."
The dissertation topic proved solid. Heaton's paper was selected as the outstanding dissertation at Michigan State in 1995 and was also published by the Teacher's College Press of Columbia University.
A similar self-study has also become an important part of Math in the Middle. A second-year program, Math in the Middle allows Nebraska middle school teachers to earn a master's degree through either mathematics or teaching, learning or teacher education in two academic years and three summers.
"One of the last things people do in Math in the Middle is an action research project to study their own teaching," Heaton said. "It's exciting to watch teachers choose problems and to think about what it means to study their own teaching from the inside. And, it's exciting to watch them learn things."
While her work with existing teachers is important, Heaton continues to be dedicated to passing on her knowledge to UNL students who will enter the education field.
Working with Lincoln Public Schools, Heaton, Lewis and Patience Fisher (a senior lecturer in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education), have created, "Math Matters," an avenue that allows UNL students to enter elementary classrooms before a standard practicum.
"Through my relationship with Roper Elementary, UNL students go out and spend time in classrooms working with practicing teachers, while learning how to teach math," Heaton said.
Heaton's dedication to the profession continues to reverberate in students after they leave her classroom. According to Lewis, in the first three semesters of Math Matters, 75 percent of the students involved returned to ask Heaton for letters of recommendation.
Heaton never expected she would make such a wide-ranging impact on education.
"When I decided to leave elementary school, I was not leaving because I felt burned out - I wanted a new challenge," Heaton said. "I was worried that maybe I wouldn't come to enjoy and get the same satisfaction out of college teaching. That has not been the case.
"I really enjoy the challenge of being a teacher teacher."
Ruth Heaton
Associate Professor, Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education
Area of focus: Mathematics
In the late 1990s, the UNL Department of Mathematics was searching for ways to bolster the math education of elementary teachers.
"Fortunately, I 'discovered' Ruth Heaton on our campus," said Jim Lewis, professor of mathematics.
Through an NSF grant application, Lewis, Heaton and Patience Fisher (a senior lecturer with Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education) created Math Matters, a program that allowed experimentation toward improving math education of future elementary teachers.
In what is now called the Mathematics Semester, Lewis teaches students a math course, while Heaton guides them through math methods instruction. Heaton also supervises students in a brief practicum at Roper Elementary School. The program, which started in 2000, encompasses a 10-hour block of courses focused on learning mathematics and learning how to be a good teacher of the course.
Though originally envisioned for future teachers who wanted to excel in mathematics, the success of the Mathematics Semester led the College of Education and Human Sciences to require the program for all students who major in elementary education.
The expanded program now involves several other teams of mathematics and education faculty.
Building on that project, Heaton and Lewis wrote another NSF proposal and received $5 million to establish the Math in the Middle Institute Partnership.
Math in the Middle works with middle school teachers, allowing them to earn the a master's degree in two academic years and three summers.
One of the more important elements of the program is a self-study conducted as part of a final project. In the self-study, teachers keep journals, watch their teaching methods, talk to one another and collect and study student work. From this project, teachers learn about weaknesses and strengths, allowing them to become more effective teachers.
The second year program will "graduate" its first class in August. Heaton said 62 teachers from across Nebraska are taking part in the program, with another 30 to 35 to start a new class in August.
Discover more online
A University Communications video on Heaton is available here.
GO TO: ISSUE OF APRIL 20
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