In a WGBH video Robert Chaney, award-winning Sinclair Community College math professor, (on the right) teaches algebra with the SAM vehicle that he and Fred Thomas developed with ATE grant support.

Discoveries that Robert A. Chaney, the 2013 Outstanding Community College Professor of the Year, made as an Advanced Technological Education principal investigator influence his teaching.

In November, the Sinclair Community College math professor received the national award for outstanding pedagogy from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. (View his acceptance speech at the award ceremony. See Chaney teach in Modules 3 and 5 of WGBH’s Getting Results.)

Chaney's pedagogy involves students using the math machines that he and Sinclair colleague Fred Thomas, now retired from the college's physics department, developed with the support of several ATE grants from the National Science Foundation. Details about their development of math machines and formation of a non-profit corporation to continue their innovative work are the subject of the February 10 ATE@20 blog.

A Student Describes Chaney's Teaching "Genius"

In his introduction of Chaney at the U.S. Professors of the Year Award Program on November 14 in New York City, Sinclair alumnus Andy Heeze praised Chaney's ability to read students' non-verbal cues of their understanding and to keep those struggling with a particular lesson on track without boring the larger group.

With infectious enthusiasm, a great sense of humor, and creative real-life examples and experiments, Heeze said, Chaney addresses students' need to know when they will use the math concepts being taught.

Heeze described Chaney's "true genius as a teacher" as his strategic restraint. He does not immediately answer a student's question with the answer to the problem. Instead, he hints, guides, prompts, and encourages students toward finding the answer themselves.

"In our society of opinions and uncertainty, answers are so valuable; but when you provide somebody with an answer, it is at that moment that a person stops thinking about the question and begins thinking about the implications of the answer," Heeze said.

Heeze explained that Chaney's patient process 10 years ago in his Sinclair calculus class instilled deeper learning, anchored lessons in his memory, and led him to become an engineer.

During the lesson Chaney showed how mathematicians divided irregular areas into ever-smaller sections to get a very good approximation of an answer. He then pointed out that the mathematicians realized that dividing by infinitesimally small sections, the approximation became an exact answer. "This realization led to the industrial revolution. And the teaching of it led me to understand calculus and become an engineer," Heeze said.

Chaney Explains His Approach to Instruction

Chaney's educational philosophy and pedagogy changed most dramatically early in his career when his focus was math itself. Over the years it has evolved due to his intentional efforts to help people by facilitating their understanding of math.

In his acceptance speech at the CASE and Carnegie ceremony, Chaney mentioned a life-changing experience that prompted him to leave a pure math Ph.D. program and find alternate employment including work in a nursing home. Those valuable life experiences shifted his attention to helping people. A few years later this desire to help others brought him back to math.

When he joined Sinclair's faculty in 1989, his goal was to help students succeed in math so they could attain their career goals.

Working collaboratively on an ATE Center grant with Fred Thomas, then a physics professor at Sinclair, and other colleagues in the mid-1990s clarified for Chaney the connections between math and engineering, and other careers. This prompted him to add more hands-on activities to his classes in order to connect students with real situations and tasks. "It was a very important project that got us started," he said, referring to his and Thomas' ongoing interdisciplinary work.

Over the past 15 years they have received several additional grants including an ATE project grant in 2002 that helped them create their SAM robot and other simple machines that students can manipulate by entering math formulas into calculators and computers.

The math machines have become important tools for his teaching of algebra and other foundational concepts.

Patient listening is the other extraordinary aspect of Chaney's award-winning pedagogy. When students express frustration with difficult problems, he does not immediately show them the solution as he would have early in his career.

To prevent them from getting discouraged, Chaney said, he concentrates on what he can "say to them that might get them thinking again from where they're at. To do that I have to understand where they're at."

Before he offers guidance, Chaney takes the time to listen. "I've learned to listen carefully to what they're saying about where they're at with the problem or activity. And I try to think about what they're thinking. So that I can facilitate in a way that maybe puts them on a little bit better path," he said.

Chaney related a recent experience with a student who was upset when her formula to move a robot did not work. The formula she devised was drastically different than one he would have used. But, instead of telling her she was wrong he asked her to explain her reasoning.

"In the process of her trying to explain it—and I'm trying to think and listen very carefully to what she talking about and thinking about—I realized her formula was generally correct. She had thought it through.

"It didn't look like mine, but I was able to help her figure out where the she had made one small mistake and I did that by saying something that helped her think about it more ... If I would have told her my formula it wouldn't have been nearly as effective," he said.

Chaney has found that by listening carefully to students describe their thinking he is able calibrate his response to keep them engaged in the struggle to master the concept. There's another longer term benefit. "It helps them see themselves as successful, if they keep plugging in," he said.

The national undergraduate teaching award and the other honors he has received throughout his career are gratifying. But along the way, Chaney has found an intrinsic reward for the intense listening and modulated response of his pedagogy: "It's fun to get good at being able to do that."