On April 7, 2002, President James Wright announced that Dartmouth would implement several major initiatives recommended in a report by the College's Committee on Institutional Diversity and Equity. Dartmouth's attempts in recent years to enhance diversity (among students as well as among faculty) have generated awareness of how acceptance and inclusion of people from all walks of life strengthen the educational experience for all members of the Dartmouth community.
Across the world, efforts are being made to create learning environments that acknowledge and account for the fact that different people learn differently and that in particular, women and men may learn mathematics in different ways. I think most would agree that regardless of the enormous amount of research, time, money and effort that has been invested in improving the accessibility of mathematics and the sciences to women at all levels, there is still more that can be done.
Upon examining both academic papers on what should work based on educational ideology as well as "research" done by individual teachers and actual programs that have been successful with their students in their classrooms, several common themes emerge. The most promising programs for encouraging women in mathematics seem to incorporate real-world applications into the standard curricula, experimenting with interdisciplinary courses and providing supportive environments for women in a more general sense (through mentors and role models). Dartmouth's department of mathematics is leading the way in offering opportunities to women interested in pursuing both studies and careers in mathematics.
One notable example of innovative curriculum changes is the Mathematics Across the Curriculum (Principal Investigator, mathematics professor Dorothy Wallace). A five-year project funded by a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, MATC is a collaborative effort by more than 50 faculty that has developed or enhanced 26 Dartmouth College courses, including Math 4: Applications of Calculus to Medicine and Biology. Students comment that the interdisciplinary Math 4 course provides an in-depth understanding of the connections between mathematics and the sciences. The class develops mathematical tools beyond standard calculus and applies them to construct such models as the mutation of HIV, spread of infectious disease and biological disposition of drugs. Math 4 may be particularly advantageous for female students, who, according to studies, benefit from changes in pedagogy that provide insight into the materials through applications.
The recently developed Math 3 course (led by professors Dwight Lahr and Jeff Kiralis) also interweaves applications into the standard curricula by using open-ended case studies for teaching concepts of calculus in a way that promotes a more in-depth understanding of mathematics and its applications. For instance, students apply differential equations and calculus in order to study and compare different population models. Students in these classes have said that they find real-life applications to be more approachable than standard calculus.
Also incorporating applications into the classroom curricula is the Chance program (led by mathematics professor Laurie Snell). Not intended to replace introductory statistics courses, its aim is rather to "encourage students to think more rationally about chance events and to make them more informed readers of the daily press." The course examines questions being discussed in the news, such as: what is the evidence that HIV causes AIDS? How reliable is DNA fingerprinting? How reliable are opinion polls? This successful course has also been taught at Grinnell, Middlebury, Princeton and UCSD.
Finally, interdisciplinary mathematics-humanities courses epitomize the mode of creative thinking that is at the heart of a liberal-arts education. Take the "Matter of Time" college course, which integrates mathematics, literature and the arts to explore time as a key concept of reality (co-taught by Dwight Lahr and Beatriz Pastor). Dartmouth's pioneering courses such as this one have taken on the challenge of making mathematics accessible to a more general population. As I said, several studies have shown that women may benefit from such interdisciplinary classroom experiences.
Dartmouth also provides support to students interested in pursuing a career in mathematics, with strong male and female role models. Currently, half of the students in Dartmouth's mathematics graduate program are female. Additionally, Dartmouth has more female tenured faculty in mathematics than any other Ivy League school, along with several assistant professors and post-docs. These statistics are striking when compared to other institutions: Harvard, for instance, has no tenured female mathematics faculty, and under 10 percent of its graduate students are female. Beyond this, statistics are unable to capture what is offered beyond simply having these women in the department. They excel in their research areas, stand out as excellent teachers and are incredibly supportive of their students.
Many mathematics education programs, particularly those designed to encourage women in the field, are raising questions about how women and men learn that must be examined through educational theory and psychology. I believe Dartmouth is leading the way with promising and innovative programs. Just as importantly, these programs are being led by talented individuals with the drive to make real differences in mathematics education.
