Biographical Sketch

Terry received her Ph.D. in 1995 from the College of Education at the University of Delaware under the direction of James Hiebert.  Since 1996 she has been on the faculty in the Department of Mathematics at Western Michigan University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics for teachers and in mathematics education.

Terry’s research focuses on issues of elementary mathematics education.  One main interest is understanding the process of teacher change in response to reform efforts in mathematics.  In particular, she is interested in how elementary teacher’s thinking and practice change in the context of implementing reform curricula, and what impact adopting innovative mathematics teaching practices has on their teaching of other subject areas.  Another area of interest is understanding the process that prospective teachers face as they attempt to re-learn mathematics for teaching.  In particular, she is currently exploring their relearning of whole number computation, with a focus on reasoning and justification.

From 1999 – 2004, Terry co-directed Implementing Investigations in Mathematics (InMath), a Local Systemic Change project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  InMath provided professional development for 6 local elementary school districts that had all chosen to implement the NSF-funded mathematics curriculum:  Investigations in Number, Data and Space.  She is currently involved with the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum which is supported by the NSF under the Centers for Teaching and Learning Program.