Участник:Yury G. Kudryashov/Teaching Statement

While being an Assistant Professor in Higher School of Economics, I gave lectures to students with very different mathematical background.

Pre-calculus for non-mathematicians

The first year I came to HSE I gave pre-calculus courses at Faculty at Politology (practice lessons) and at Faculty of History (lectures). Many students were anxious about math, others thought that they will never need it.

My first goal was to convince them that mathematics is useful and is not too hard to understand. For this end, I try to give examples related to real life, or students' area of interest.

Another goal was to explain to them that mathematics is not about applying some formulas, but about understanding the problem.

My favorite quote about math education is from Asimov's “Profession”.

“And what about mathematics?”

“That’s the easiest of all, sir – Honorable. Mathematics is different from other technical subjects. It starts with certain simple principles and proceeds by steps. You Can start with nothing and learn. It’s practically designed for that…”

Developing courses

Besides following already developed courses, I also developed some courses on my own.

For me, the most interesting experience was developing the program of the pre-calculus course for linguistics departement. Ilya Schurov and me talked to many professors who teach linguistics to understand what are mathematical prerequisites for their courses.

Also, I developed the course “Calculus of several variables” for the bachelors in Economics.