Awards

Titled Professor (Emeritus) - 2006

Chancellor's Professor of Curriculum and Instruction

Titled Professor - 2000 - 2005

Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chair of Education

Fulbright Award - 1986

Brazil

About Frank K. Lester, Jr.

Frank Lester is Professor of Mathematics Education at Indiana University - Bloomington. He joined the faculty at Indiana University in 1972 immediately after completing his Ph.D. in mathematics education at Ohio State University.

During his tenure at Indiana University, he has been a PI or co-PI for numerous National Science Foundation (NSF) projects, which served to establish his reputation as an authority on mathematics content and pedagogy for elementary and middle schools and on the preparation of mathematics teachers.

His primary research interests lie in the areas of mathematical problem solving, metacognition, and the assessment of higher-order thinking in mathematics. He held the Martha Lea and Bill Armstrong Chair in Teacher Education from 2000-2005. In 2006, he was awarded the rank of Chancellor's Professor.

In 1986 he was a Fulbright Fellow in the Cognitive Psychology Program at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil. He has lectured widely in Africa, Australia, Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, and North America on mathematical problem solving, mathematics assessment, and related topics. He also has been a visiting professor at Chelsea College, University of London, the University of Calgary (Canada), Kelvin Grove College of Advanced Education (Australia), and Goteborgs Universitet (Sweden).

He has served on the editorial boards of various national and international journals. From 1991 through 1996 he served as editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, the leading research journal in mathematics education, following a four-year term as editor of that journal's monograph series. From 1999 through 2002 he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teacher of Mathematics.

Recently he received the first award from the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators for Excellence in Scholarship and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.