Joan B. Garfield is an American

educational psychologist An educational psychologist is a psychologist whose differentiating functions may include diagnostic and psycho-educational Psychological evaluation, assessment, psychological counseling in educational communities (students, teachers, parents, ...

specializing in

statistics education Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research. Statistics is both a formal science and a practical theory of scientific inquiry, and both aspects are considered in stati ...

. She is retired from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

as a professor emeritus of educational psychology.

Education

Garfield entered the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

intending to study

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

, but graduated in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in education and a minor in mathematics. She became a middle school mathematics teacher but, realizing she needed more preparation as a teacher, returned to graduate school. She chose the

hoping to work with Donovan Johnson, whose works she had read, but he had retired and she instead worked with his student Robert Jackson. She earned a master's degree in mathematics education from the University of Minnesota in 1978, and while working on it was encouraged by statistician Raymond O. Collier Jr. to continue for doctoral studies. She completed her Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1981.

Career

Garfield began teaching at University of Minnesota faculty in 1979 as a summer mathematics instructor, as a way of supplementing her income as a graduate student, and remained at the university for the rest of her career, becoming a full professor in 2002. She chaired the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

Section on Statistics Education in 2003, and in the same year was president of the

American Educational Research Association The American Educational Research Association (AERA, pronounced "A-E-R-A") is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and p ...

Special Interest Group for Educational Statisticians.

Books

Garfield is the editor of several books in statistics education and the author, with Dani Ben Zvi, of ''Developing Students’ Statistical Reasoning: Connecting Research and Teaching Practice'' (Springer, 2008).

Recognition

In 2001 Garfield was recognized as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

. She has been an Elected Member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

since 2002. In 2005 the American Statistical Association gave her their Founder's Award for distinguished service to the association. The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education gave her their lifetime achievement award in 2007.

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garfield, Joan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American statisticians American women psychologists American psychologists Educational psychologists Women statisticians Statistics educators University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education alumni University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development alumni University of Minnesota faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute American women academics 21st-century American women Quantitative psychologists