Dr. Victor Kutsenok
Bio
Victor Kutsenok, born in Kiev, Ukraine, 1956.
He has a Bachelor and master’s degrees (combined) in Mathematics from the Kiev Pedagogical Institute (Ukraine) and a Ph. D. degree in Teaching Mathematics from Moscow Scientific Research Institute of General Education (Russia).
For 44 years, he has been successfully working as a math teacher at all school levels (grades 5-12, lyceum, college, and university) in Kiev, Fort Wayne, and South Bend.
Dr. Victor Y. Kutsenok is a Full Professor of the Science Division and Mathematics Courses Coordinator at the University of Saint Francis
He is a member of the Mathematical Association of America and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
The secret of his success in working with students is his highly interactive approach to teaching. He employs the Vygotsky’s “zones of proximal development” and Socratic instruction, together with various scaffolding techniques.
He created an unique curriculum of preparation of future mathematicians and math teachers. At the University of St. Francis, this curriculum blends theoretical math and problem solving, the history of mathematics, logic, physics, and math applications as the traditional components of successful math education. Math students at the USF have the opportunity to learn and do math not only in classical math classes but also by taking such unique and instrumental courses as Math Puzzles and Games, Cryptology, and Math Olympiads.
Dr. Kutsenok discusses the ideas of math education with colleagues from different countries at international conferences and informal meetings. Among those he has worked with are: a teacher of a Noble laureate, a president of a national academy of pedagogy, and nationwide publishers of textbooks.
Many of his students have become specialists in math, computer science, education, finances, physics, and other branches in the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Canada, and Germany. Some of his students have become extraordinary businesspeople. Furthermore, many of his students have come to excel in the medical field as doctors, nurses, and medical technicians.
Victor Kutsenok also took very seriously work with talented youth in such extracurricular settings as math circles (clubs) and math Olympiads. Two of his biggest teaching achievements are a first place of his math team in USSR in 1985 as well as multiple gold medals by his students at the Soviet math Olympiads.
Currently, Dr. Kutsenok publishes new math problems at various international mathematical online forums. He is also a contributor to developing techniques of solving math problems which are published on the daily basis at the sites, like Math problems & puzzles., Math Battle, and Geometry Puzzle.
Dr. Kutsenok organized math contests for 8th, 10th, and 12th graders for many years.
His pedagogical credo: Math is to develop!
