Shirley M. Frye

"Shirley Frye" redirects here. Not to be confused with the wife of Henry Frye.

Shirley M. Frye (née Urban)[1] is an American mathematics educator. She is the former president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics[2] and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.[3]

Education and career

Frye has a bachelor's degree from Thiel College (1951) and a master's degree from Arizona State University.[4] At Thiel College, one of her mentors was mathematics professor Nathan Harter.[1]

She worked for 40 years as a mathematics teacher, retiring in 1991.[5] In 1965 she hosted an educational television series on mathematics, on the Arizona State University channel KAET.[6]

Service

She first joined the board of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1973,[3] while working for the Scottsdale Unified School District in Arizona,[7] and she served as president from 1988 to 1990.[3] Under her presidency, the NCTM issued a report calling for more emphasis on reasoning over rote learning in primary and secondary school mathematics education,[8] for the incorporation of calculators into classroom work,[9] and for greater connections to everyday practical problems.[10] She was quoted in Reader's Digest as dismissive of innate mathematical ability in mathematics, saying "anyone can achieve confidence in math if properly instructed".[11]

Frye was president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics from 1981 to 1983.[2] She also served on the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Research Council, and as part of that service helped author a series of primary-school mathematics textbooks.[3]

Recognition

Thiel College named Frye as their distinguished alumnus of the year in 1976.[12] The National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics gave Frye their Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award in 1986.[2] Frye was the inaugural recipient of the Louise Hay Award of the Association for Women in Mathematics, in 1991.[13][14] She won the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.[5][14]

References

  1. ^ a b Tributes, The Thiel Fund, retrieved 2018-11-23
  2. ^ a b c Gallery of Ross Taylor / Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Awardees, National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, retrieved 2018-11-23
  3. ^ a b c d Shirley M. Frye Biography, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, retrieved 2018-11-23
  4. ^ "MAA Prizes Awarded in San Francisco", Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 38: 198, 1991
  5. ^ a b 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Shirley M. Frye, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, retrieved 2018-11-23
  6. ^ "Modern math explained on new series", Phoenix Gazette, p. 47, March 20, 1965
  7. ^ "Scottsdale teacher runs for math post", Arizona Republic, p. 4, February 10, 1973
  8. ^ Kolata, Gina (April 2, 1989), "Math is only new when the teacher doesn't get it", Ideas & Trends, The New York Times
  9. ^ Vobejda, Barbara (March 22, 1989), "New formula offered for teaching math", Washington Post
  10. ^ Curry, George E. (March 22, 1989), "Educators: Make math practical", Chicago Tribune
  11. ^ Appelbaum, Peter Michael (1995), Popular Culture, Educational Discourse, and Mathematics, SUNY Press, p. 92, ISBN 9780791422694
  12. ^ "Thiel Homecoming Events", Greenville Record Argus, October 14, 1976. See also "Alumni Awards", Physics Today, 14 (1), Thiel College: 54, 1961, Bibcode:1961PhT....14a..54., doi:10.1063/1.3057336, retrieved 2018-11-23.
  13. ^ Hay Award: Past Recipients, Association for Women in Mathematics, retrieved 2018-11-23
  14. ^ a b Case, Bettye Anne; Leggett, Anne M., eds. (2005), Complexities: Women in Mathematics, Princeton University Press, p. 151, ISBN 9780691114620