Tag: Dr. Ali Sabri Ipek

  • Turkish Math Professor Now a Research Scholar at Rider University

    Turkish Math Professor Now a Research Scholar at Rider University

    Dr. Ali Sabri Ipek has been named a postdoctoral research scholar in residence at Rider University’s College of Education and Human Services, where he will work on a variety of mathematics education research projects with Dr. Bhesh Mainali, an associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education.

    Ipek is a professor at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University in his hometown, Rize, Turkey. His principal research interests are conceptual learning in mathematics, teacher education, and a concept in mathematics education known as multiple representations, which shows how a single mathematical idea can be depicted or indicated in various ways.

    Ipek’s partnership with Rider began when she was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship by Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council.

    Ipek and Mainali have been working on three different projects: the role of representation in school mathematics textbooks in Turkey and the United States, the role of representations in teaching and learning mathematics, and a comparative analysis of the mathematics education system in the United States and Turkey in relation to the role of representation in high school mathematics.

    “I am very excited about this new and important experience in my academic life,” says Ipek, who serves in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University’s Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Department of Primary Mathematics Teaching. “I am grateful to Rider University officials, especially Dr. Bhesh Mainali for providing me with the opportunity.”

    In 1992, Ipek graduated as the top student from Atatürk University Kazım Karabekir’s Department of Mathematics with a bachelor’s degree. After working as a teacher and research assistant, he returned to Atatürk to pursue a master’s and doctorate in mathematics education.

    Ipek joined Erdoğan University’s faculty in 2008, after serving as a professor and department chair of mathematics and science education. He has also worked as a writer and editor of mathematics textbooks certified by Turkey’s Ministry of National Education, as well as on the commission responsible for developing the country’s primary and secondary school mathematics curricula.

    “We are hoping to explore some important aspects of multiple representations in teaching and learning mathematics, particularly with the context of Turkey and the USA mathematics education system,” says Mainali.