Jean Marie Grant
Assistant Department Chair, Associate Professor
Education
Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Illinois at Chicago
M.A., Gifted Education from Rosary College B.S., Math Education from Eastern Illinois University
Teaching
Dr. Grant teaches math methods for elementary, middle school, and secondary students. All of Bradley’s math methods courses feature a very strong emphasis on national standards, appropriate application of educational technology, and teaching, so that students understand the why behind the algorithms or problems they are studying. Every class is active, with students participating in small groups and class discussions, considering the processes needed in learning mathematics.
At the graduate level, Dr. Grant teaches Instructional Strategies and Design, a course that calls on inservice teachers to consider effective teaching strategies that require all students to think, not just mimic the teacher. She emphasizes research-based instruction that encourages creative thinking, critical thinking, higher-level thinking, problem solving, and learning with understanding. Her courses examine applicable research and consider learning styles and educational technology as needed in order to make teaching and learning appropriate for the 21st century.
With a keen interest in international travel and study, Dr. Grant also teaches Exploring Diversity: Learners, Families and Communities in the study abroad program. Through that course, she has taken students to Sydney, Australia, where they studied diversity in education.
Scholarship
Dr. Grant’s varied research interests are focused on learning, particularly student learning and teacher learning. A believer in learning with understanding, Dr. Grant has presented several activities that involve the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics process standards of communication, problem solving, reasoning and proof, representation, and connections. One example is the Human Number line, an activity that has been effectively used in grades K-10, which uses only a wall or open space and the students, thus requiring no cost and applicable in any classroom. Because the Human Number Line can be used with fractions, integers, and whole numbers, there is practical application at many levels. The questions asked and the responses expected involve movement and explanation with justification, thus most math process standards are addressed.
As scholarship ties with teaching, Dr. Grant is also involved in creating examples of errors that high school teachers encounter in algebra and geometry courses. The exploration of the common errors, possible reasons for the errors, and approaches to correcting and potentially preventing the errors is an ongoing project on which she works with secondary preservice teachers.
Further, the continuing infusion of technology in the learning process and in the classroom is an interest that Dr. Grant pursues with preservice teachers at all levels, as well as with her colleagues.
Service
As an experienced faculty member of the department of Teacher Education, Dr. Grant finds that much of her service centers on the curriculum and programs of study for Bradley students. She serves on both the college curriculum committee and the university undergraduate curriculum and regulation subcommittee.
Dr. Grant serves as the department faculty advising manager. She introduces education students to the various programs and the procedures they must follow as they move through their respective programs of study, and also provides electronic advising presentations.