U of A Mathematics Associate Professor Adi Adiredja Receives 2024 College of Science Innovation in Teaching Award
Each year the College of Science at the University of Arizona recognizes one faculty member for “outstanding educational innovation developed and applied to course delivery whether in the classroom or in a virtual setting”. Known as the College of Science Innovation in Teaching Award, the selection process is quite rigorous. Congratulations to Mathematics Associate Professor Aditya “Adi” Adiredja on receiving this year's recognition.
“I’m incredibly honored and thankful for the award because of the number of colleagues and students who supported this nomination,” Adi shares, “Teaching Math 119a: Math of Biological Systems specifically has been rewarding and transformative. To work so closely with and learn from Career Track Faculty, Samantha Kao and Tynan Lazarus and our amazing GTAs and ULAs have pushed my teaching in new directions that I could not have done myself.”
Adi’s research focuses on inequities in mathematics education, more specifically prioritizing “the concerns and needs of racial and ethnic minority students, especially those who are women, first-generation, and low-income”. (doktoradi.com) Within the context of undergraduate mathematics, Adi has 3 research aims that explore the intersection of research on mathematical cognition and equity research. Understanding and dismantling deficit perspectives, developing anti-deficit teaching and learning, and constructing sense making counterstories. Each of these aims are followed by an impressive list of publications. Learn more on Adi’s website, doktoradi.com.
Circling back to the specifics of the Innovation in Teaching Award, Adi’s students have nothing but good things to say. “For the first time I did not feel invisible,” says one Number Theory student, “I shared my mistakes, questions, successful and unsuccessful attempts, and they were always heard and valued”. Experiences like this reinforced Adi’s nomination. Department Head Robert “Bob” Sims notes, “Adi has implemented an innovative program of teaching mathematics using IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) with an emphasis on humanizing students. He is a remarkable math educator with a masterful ability to connect with students and collaborate with faculty. As evidenced by his student evaluations and informal conversations with faculty, Adi's efforts to share his ideas and demonstrate the effectiveness of his methodologies help to raise the Department's profile for excellence in teaching.”
Learn more about the award and others like it offered by the College of Science here.