Chang, a 23-year professor at Mat-Su College, was recently recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as its Alaska Professor of the Year. He's one of 38 state-level winners in the nation honored for their influence on teaching and their commitment to undergraduate students, according to the foundation's Web site, www.usprofessorsoftheyear.org. The organization also selected four professors as national winners.
It's the second time Chang has won a Professor of the Year award, having also been recognized by the foundation in 2001. He said he's not sure how to feel about twice being honored.
"I did feel surprised -- why did they give it to me two times?" he said with a laugh.
One number the math professor seems to have trouble with is his age, which he said is "at least 60 years old, maybe 65." Chang teaches remedial mathematics as well as algebra, calculus, statistics and logic, plus upper-level mathematics courses aimed at future teachers. In his time at the college, he estimated he's taught nearly 6,000 students. That doesn't include the hundreds of students he's taught during visits to China or the students he taught before arriving in Alaska.
An animated speaker who injects humor into every conversation, it's no surprise Chang keeps students engaged. He provides a "refreshment center" stocked with crackers, instant soup and other snacks for students who might not have a chance to grab a bite elsewhere, and he's at the office well before 6 a.m. every day to help students who need a boost. He also created a scholarship for students pursuing studies at Mat-Su College. The scholarship fund, which he hopes to build to $100,000, has more than $35,000 in it.
But with the end of his career at the college in sight -- he plans to retire in three or four years -- he said he's just beginning a new project. Chang hopes to teach teachers a new method for teaching mathematics, one he believes will help American students learn to love and excel at problem-solving and mathematics.
The method Chang believes could change America's math future was suggested by Hungarian mathematician and Stanford University professor Georg Polya, who wrote "How to Solve It," a book of advice for teaching students to solve math and other problems.
Chang said Polya's method is based on four principals: Students demonstrate that they understand the problem, make a plan to solve it, carry out the plan and then challenge their work.
"If I can get students to do it, our student achievement goes up. I guarantee it," he said.
Chang said he's presented Polya's ideas to future math teachers in China, where the idea is catching on.
"They love it," he said. "When you teach this way, you don't have to talk. You can sit there and drink your tea."
The method has been slower to gain traction in the United States, he said. He hopes to be a resource for teachers in Alaska who are interested in learning the concept.
In an interview Monday, Chang discussed his teaching philosophy and his hopes for future math students. Below are excerpts.
Q. When did you begin teaching mathematics?
A. In 1970, in Atlanta at Booker T. Washington High School. After that I taught math all the time. After (teaching in Georgia) I was in Laredo, Texas, where I teach graduate level -- I teach teachers how to teach math. Then I came here.
Q. But you moved to America before that?
A. In 1963, yes. I went to Indiana, and I went to Wisconsin to go to school there, and then ... I got my Ph.D. at Georgia State in 1977.
Q. Why did you come to America?
A. After I graduated from my teacher college, I studied how to be a principal. But they did not have a principal job for me. After I got my degree I wanted to go back to Taiwan but somebody said "What did you come here for? We don't want you here."
Q. What is your teaching method? How do you keep students engaged?
A. I do not stand in front of the class, I'm walking around the class. I say (to students), "Do you understand how to do this problem?"
I tell my students, don't ever show the example from the book, create a new example. I show them how to teach. I have to give them a good example.
Q. You're kind of notorious for giving your students permission to hate math.
A. Yes -- I had a retiree from the Marines, he hated math. But by the end he loved it. ... He later became president of the Math Club.
Q. How did that happen?
A. I led him to get excited. Do you remember the old saying, "Failure is the mother of success?" I tell my teachers, right now, the student doesn't even care, they want to give up. I say, success is the mother of success. You have to give them success to let them get excited.
It's pretty important that you trust them. When I give them a test, I don't stand there and watch. If they got 100 and ... couldn't do a problem on the board, I would be really unhappy.
And I don't fail them -- I let them make up (tests) again, again, again. The point is to learn, not to harass them.
Q. You said you plan to be at Mat-Su a few more years?
A. Yes, three or four.
Q. What's your next big challenge?
A. Right now my teaching philosophy is that I hope to help teachers to teach this problem-solving stuff. I really want to help them.
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