A University of Massachusetts professor has been awarded a prestigious grant to lecture and conduct research in Japan in the fields of computer science and mathematics education. Professor Howard Peelle, of the UMass School of Education, has received a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant to travel to the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for six weeks during May and June. “I was interested and available to do the Fulbright program and now it has come through and I’m excited to do this,” said Peelle.
Peelle has been a member of the UMass faculty since 1970. He is the founder of the doctoral concentration in mathematics and science education in the School of Education. JAIST is a new independent university committed to graduate research and education in science and technology. It is located in the city of Nomi in the Ishikawa Prefecture, with a satellite campus in Tokyo.
During his time in Japan, Peelle plans to work together with computer science educators, review requirements for 80 courses in JAIST’s masters and Ph.D programs, and offer recommendations for advancing students’ mathematics education.
Peelle will also lead seminars on teaching mathematics with J computing software, which Peelle calls “computer mathematical notation,” useful for teaching and computing mathematics. The Fulbright grant provides short-term academic opportunities for professionals to travel abroad, with the intention being that they will not interfere with academic or professional commitments in the United States. The program is carried out over two to six weeks abroad. According to the official Web site for the Fulbright grant (www.cies.org/about_fulb.htm), the purpose of the grant is to increase the participation of leading U.S scholars in the Fulbright academic exchange, and to encourage new activities that surpass the traditional activities of lecturing and research. In this case, Peelle will be going abroad in order to assess the curriculum, he said.
The Fulbright grant has been awarded by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, which is assisted by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars located in Washington, D.C.
In 2003, Peelle received a Fulbright Scholar award to lecture and conduct research in Malaysia. Peelle was accompanied by his wife Carolyn, who specializes in the field of urban education and is a former editor of the UMass-published journal, Equity ‘ Excellence in Education.
“We had a wonderful, wonderful trip,” said Peelle. “We met some interesting people in the top university in the country.”
The Fulbright Program was first proposed to Congress in 1945 by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas in order to promote “mutual understanding between the people of the U.S and the people of other countries of the world,” according to the Web site.
The Fulbright Program was approved by Congress and was then signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1946. Today, the Fulbright Program sends 800 scholars and professionals to over 140 countries each year, where they lecture and carry out research in a variety of professional fields.
Peelle had previously traveled to Japan in the spring of 1985 with his whole family on a lecture and research tour, and is looking forward to seeing some of the faculty he worked with while he was abroad.
“We went to several places in Japan in 1985, and I’ll be meeting up with other faculty I haven’t seen in 20 years,” said Peelle. “It will be delightful to see them again.” Jennifer Heshion can be reached at [email protected].
