maclean

I am interested in various areas of Geometry and Analysis, but my current research is focused on how students learn mathematics. 

I am interested in understanding how we understand mathematics and I am working on projects that make use of comparative judgment to study how students learn mathematics. With some wonderful colleagues (faculty and staff), I co-developed ComPAIR, a tool for implementing comparative judgment exercises. This is an open education resource. I am currently working with colleagues in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne to study how using comparative judgment exercises may affect students' learning. I am also undertaking a UBC BREB approved study on the use of a natural language AI in comparative judgement assessments in MATH 253 Multivariable Calculus.  

I am involved in writing children's stories -- Adventures of Small Number -- to encourage interest in mathematics. This is a project with Veselin Jungic at SFU and involves collaborations with others. Many of our co-authors re-tell these stories in their Indigenous languages. There are some wonderful animations done from the illustrations for these stories. In addition to versions in English and French, there are versions in Blackfoot, Cree, Squamish, and Halq'eméylem, Sliammon, Nisga'a, Heiltsuk, Hul'q'umi'num, and Huu-ay-aht/Nuu-chah-nulth. 

I am on the organzing committee for the upcoming June 2026 conference Indigenizing University Mathematics 4 (IUM 4), which is part of a unique and emerging international conference series that has grown from a grassroots desire to explore what it may mean to Indigenize mathematical practices in university spaces. Since its inception, the IUM project has been a collaboration between mathematicians and Indigenous knowledge holders and practitioners, carried out with deep care for the integrity of the knowledge systems involved.

Awards

• Canadian Mathematical Society Adrien Pouliot Prize in Mathematics Education, 2015.
• Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS) Education Prize, 2012.
• Killam Teaching Award, Faculty of Science, UBC, 2005.