{{short description|American mathematician}} {{CSS image crop|Image=|bSize=430|cWidth=200|cHeight=300|oTop=12|oLeft=12|Description=undated photo}} '''Robert B. Davis''' (June 23, 1926{{spnd}}December 21, 1997) was an American mathematician and mathematics educator.<ref name=kaput>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/pubs/focus/past_issues/FOCUS_18_3.pdf#page=5|title=Remembering Bob Davis|first=James J.|last=Kaput|page=5|date=March 1998|volume=18|issue=3|magazine=Focus|publisher=Mathematical Association of America}}</ref>
Davis was born in Fall River, Massachusetts.<ref>{{cite book|title=American Men and Women of Science|edition=13|year=1976|page=958|publisher=Bowker|volume=2|editor1=Jacques Cattell Press|editor2=Dael L. Wolfle|isbn=0835208729}} </ref> He graduated from MIT with a B.S, M.S, and Ph.D. (1951) in mathematics. He was a professor and researcher at the University of New Hampshire, Syracuse University, the University of Illinois<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/70985719.pdf|author1=Carolyn A. Maher|author2=Robert Speiser|title=Robert Davis: In Memoriam|year=1998|issue=17}} </ref> and Rutgers University, where he was named New Jersey Professor of Mathematics Education in 1988.<ref name=ranzan>{{cite web|url=http://www2.scc.rutgers.edu/ead/uarchives/davis2f.html|title=Guide to the Robert B. Davis Papers, 1957-1997|first=David|last=Ranzan|date=August 2006|work= Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries |publisher=Rutgers University|access-date=2021-01-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Trying to transform the teaching of math|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=September 24, 1988|page=15|first=Laura|last=Quinn|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/168784528/}}</ref> He was one of the founders of the Madison Project, a study of mathematics education which spanned 15 years. The project is named for Madison Junior High School in Syracuse, where it began.<ref name=church>{{cite web|url=https://thecollege.syr.edu/mathematics/history/robert-b-davis/|title=Robert B. Davis Bio|last=Church|first=Phil|date=June 4, 2002|access-date=March 11, 2017|publisher=Syracuse University Department of Mathematics}}</ref> The project moved to Webster College near St, Louis, Missouri in 1961.<ref>{{cite book|author=Angela Lynn Evans Walmsley|title=A History of the "new Mathematics" Movement and Its Relationship with Current Mathematical Reform|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVY_aIlezpAC&dq=%22Robert+B.+Davis%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA51|year=2003|page=51|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761825128}} </ref>
Davis was the founding editor of ''The Journal of Mathematical Behavior'' (originally ''The Journal of Children's Mathematical Behavior''), with Herbert Ginsburg in 1971.<ref name=kaput/><ref name=church/><ref name=ranzan/>
Davis was given the Ross Taylor/Glenn Gilbert National Leadership Award posthumously by the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics in 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mathedleadership.org/gallery-of-ross-taylor-glenn-gilbert-national-leadership-awardees/|title=Ross Taylor / Glenn Gilbert Gallery of Awardees|work=NCSM|publisher=National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics|access-date=2021-01-29|archive-date=2021-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122190751/https://www.mathedleadership.org/gallery-of-ross-taylor-glenn-gilbert-national-leadership-awardees/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Selected publications== * {{cite book|last=Davis|first=R. B.|year=1964|title=Discovery In Mathematics: A Text For Teachers|location=Reading, Massachusetts|publisher= Addison-Wesley}}<ref>Reviews of ''Discovery In Mathematics'': *{{cite journal|last=Storer|first=W. O.|date=February 1968|doi=10.2307/3614490|issue=379|journal=The Mathematical Gazette|jstor=3614490|pages=71–72|title=none|volume=52|s2cid=125686468 }} *{{cite journal|last=Wallace|first=Martha|date=November 1981|issue=9|jstor=2320692|page=715|journal=American Mathematical Monthly|title=none|volume=88}}</ref> * {{cite book|last=Davis|first=R. B.|title=Learning Mathematics: The Cognitive Science Approach to Mathematics Education|publisher=Ablex Publishing|location=Norwood, New Jersey|year=1984}}<ref>Reviews of ''Learning Mathematics'': *{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Margaret|date=March 1986|doi=10.2307/3615836|issue=451|journal=The Mathematical Gazette|jstor=3615836|pages=54–55|title=none|volume=70}} *{{cite journal|last=Desforges|first=Charles|issue=3|journal=British Educational Research Journal|jstor=1500567|pages=313–314|title=none|volume=11|year=1985}} *{{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=Jerry|date=March 1985|issue=3|journal=The Mathematics Teacher|jstor=27964462|pages=225–226|title=none|volume=78}} *{{cite journal|last=Kaput|first=James J.|date=March 1985|doi=10.2307/748372|issue=2|journal=Journal for Research in Mathematics Education|jstor=748372|pages=146–153|title=Minds, machines, mathematics, and metaphors|volume=16}} *{{cite journal|last=Kaput|first=James J.|date=September 1985|doi=10.2307/2686171|issue=4|journal=The College Mathematics Journal|jstor=2686171|pages=319–322|title=none|volume=16}} *{{cite journal|last=Little|first=John|date=November 1, 1984|journal=New Scientist|page=53|title=New ways to learn old tricks|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_KjN-yj9PJwC&pg=PA53}} *{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=John|date=March 1985|issue=4|journal=Instructional Science|jstor=23369023|pages=370–371|title=none|volume=13}} *{{cite journal|last=Ormell|first=Chris|date=October 1985|doi=10.2307/3121248|issue=3|journal=British Journal of Educational Studies|jstor=3121248|pages=313–314|title=none|volume=33}} *{{cite journal|last=Sowder|first=Larry|date=April 1985|issue=8|journal=The Arithmetic Teacher|jstor=41192646|page=49|title=none|volume=32}}</ref> * {{cite journal|last1=Davis|first1=R. B.|last2=Vinner|first2=S.|year=1986|title=The notion of limit: Some seemingly unavoidable misconception stages|journal=The Journal of Mathematical Behavior|volume=5|issue=3|pages=281–303}} * {{cite book|editor1-last=Davis|editor1-first=R. B.|editor2-first=Carolyn A.|editor2-last=Maher|editor2-link= Carolyn A. Maher |editor3-first=Nel|editor3-last=Noddings|editor3-link= Nel Noddings |year=1990|title=Constructivist Views on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics|series=Journal for Research in Mathematics Education Monographs|volume=4|publisher=National Council of Teachers of Mathematics|location=Reston, Virginia}}<ref>Reviews of ''Constructivist Views on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics'': *{{cite journal|last=Dawson|first=A. J. (Sandy)|date=October 1991|issue=5|journal=Educational Studies in Mathematics|jstor=3482468|pages=491–501|title=none|volume=22}} *{{cite journal|last=Nattrass|first=George|date=September 1991|id={{ProQuest|208771288}}|issue=1|journal=The Arithmetic Teacher|page=49|title=none|volume=39}}</ref>
==References== {{Archival records}} {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Robert}} Category:1926 births Category:1997 deaths Category:20th-century American mathematicians Category:MIT School of Science alumni Category:Mathematicians from New York (state) Category:American mathematics educators Category:People from Fall River, Massachusetts Category:Rutgers University faculty Category:Syracuse University faculty Category:University of New Hampshire alumni
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