Dr. Kien Lim is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his B.Eng. Electrical from the National University of Singapore, his M.S. Mathematics from the University of Wyoming, and his Ph.D. Mathematics and Science Education jointly from the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University. His research interests are on students’ problem-solving disposition and instructional strategies to advance their ways of thinking. He is particularly interested in students’ propensity to act out the first thing that comes to mind, what he calls impulsive disposition. His research goal centers on helping students advance from impulsive disposition to analytic disposition. He and his colleagues are currently developing, testing, and refining a survey instrument to assess students’ impulsive-analytic disposition. He has been investigating instructional strategies, such as use of prediction items and classroom voting with clicker technology, to help students become aware of their impulsivity as well as to elicit and address mathematical misconceptions. He is also exploring the use of mathematical tasks to provoke students’ intellectual need for the concepts he wants his students to learn.
Articles
Addressing the multiplication makes bigger and division makes smaller misconceptions via prediction and clickers, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology (2011)
This article presents a lesson that uses prediction items, clickers and visuals via PowerPoint slides...
The role of prediction in the teaching and learning of mathematics (with Gabriela Buendía, Ok-kyeong Kim, Francisco Cordero, and Lisa Kasmer), International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and (2010)
The prevalence of prediction in grade-level expectations in mathematics curriculum standards signifies the importance of...
Provoking intellectual need, Matematics Teaching in the Middle School (2009)
According to Harel's Necessity Principle (1998) “students are most likely to learn when they see...
Burning the candle at just one end: Using nonproportional examples helps students determine when proportional strategies apply, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School (2009)
In learning proportions students must understand what makes a situation proportional. If all the missing-value...
通过数学任务提高美国职前教师的数学成熟性 (Advancing pre-service teachers’ mathematical sophistication via mathematical tasks) (with 庞雅丽 and 赵锐), Journal of Mathematics Education (in Chinese) (2009)
2008年5月22日，香港数学教育学会在香港浸会大学举行了研讨会。本文以该研讨会上的发言为蓝本，区分了以下四种差异：（1）约定俗成的数学与学校数学之间的差异；（2）理解方式与思维方式之间的差异；（3）成熟的学习者与被动的学习者之间的差异；（4）知识传授与知识参与这两种教学模式之间的差异。文章还讨论了Harel提出的教学原则以及数学任务的设计与它们在课堂中的使用，并呈现了具体的案例来说明如何设计数学任务以实现特定的学习与教学目标，如激发学生学习某一特定概念的需要，促进理想的思维方式，阻止不合适的思维方式以及评估学生的概念性理解。
Dissertation
Students’ Mental Acts of Anticipating in Solving Problems involving Algebraic Inequalities and Equations, The Selected Works of Kien Lim (2006)
Anticipating is the mental act of conceiving a certain expectation without performing a sequence of...
Conference Proceedings
Assessing impulsive-analytic disposition: The Likelihood-to-Act survey and other instruments (with Amy Wagler), Proceedings of the Thirty-sixth Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (2012)
The likelihood-to-act (LtA) survey is a 32-item instrument that measures impulsive and analytic dispositions in...
Impulsive-analytic disposition in mathematical problem solving: A survey and a mathematics test (with Amy Wagler), Proceedings of the Thirty-fifth Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (2012)
The Likelihood-to-Act (LtA) survey and a mathematics test were used in this study to assess...
The hammer-and-nail phenomenon in mathematics education (2012)
"For a person with a hammer, everything looks like a nail" is a proverb that...
Inferring impulsive-analytic disposition from students’ actions in solving math problems (with Miguel Mendoza), Proceedings of the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (2012)
The research reported in this paper is part of a larger study designed to investigate...
Impulsive-analytic disposition: Instrument pilot testing (with Osvaldo F. Morera), Proceedings of the Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (2011)
The likelihood-to-act (LtA) survey measures impulsive and analytic dispositions in solving mathematics problems. The current...
Others
A Collection of Lists of Mathematical Habits of Mind (2012)
Mathematical habits of mind and general habits of mind have been identified in the field...
Mathematical Habits of Mind: A Working Group at the 2009 PME-NA Conference (with Annie Selden) (2009)
The objectives of this working group are: (a) to discuss various views and aspects of...
Helping Students Develop Mathematical Habits of Mind: A Joint Panel Session at the 2009 JMM Conference (with Kristin Camenga), Joint Mathematics Meeting (2009)
Cuoco, Goldenberg, and Mark advocate habits of mind as an organizing principle for a mathematics...