What Will Mathematicians Think?
This question could be appended to Lynn Steen’s closing list of “Twenty Questions about Research on Undergraduate Mathematics Education” – the latter henceforth referred to simply as RUME. Though this question will surely be asked and answered in a variety of ways, we wonder whether it’s entirely appropriate. Should RUME be made accountable to, or judged by, mathematicians? Would a graph theorist, for example, stand in judgment of a colleague’s work in several complex variables? To some extent, the practical answer is yes – this has been and will continue to be done in tenure decisions. But wait, we are getting ahead of our story. Let us first introduce the protagonist – the first of a projected series of annual volumes titled Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education [CMBS Series, Issues in Mathematics Education, Vol. 4, 1994]. The volumes are a project of the AMS/MAA Committee for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (CRUME), and managing editor Tom Dick has produced a
