David Hallowell, a second-year Ph.D. student in Education, is working on a project that he hopes will be a "game changer" for math education. David has a B.A. in Psychology and Social Behavior from UC Irvine and a Master's degree in Philosophy from Boston College. His research explores spatial reasoning in math and science education. David was also a Fulbright Fellow in Vienna, Austria, during the 2005-2006 school year.
When David is not playing with Legos and robots, exploring the night sky with his telescope, or preparing thought-provoking lectures for his sections, he enjoys spending time with his wife, Amanda, and two children. Read on to learn more about David's research, graduate school experiences, and future plans.
Tell us a little about your research and how you came to choose the topic.
David with a student-built creation at the Lego engineering summer camps where he taught over the summer for Play-Well TEKnologies.My research area is in spatial reasoning, especially as it relates to math and science education in children. My advisor, Dr. Yukari Okamoto, introduced the topic to me last year and I realized that it had been a theme in the work that I had done going years back. Dr. Okamoto does work with an international consortium based in Canada, who I had the pleasure of meeting last spring at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) conference, and I was captivated by the different projects they were working on. I will confess that Legos and robots are sometimes involved.
I am also working on an interdisciplinary emphasis in Cognitive Science and we have a lot of folks on campus doing interdisciplinary work in this area. UCSB hosted the world’s leading scholars in the field this past August for the International Spatial Cognition Summer Institute and it was loads of fun.
What has graduate student life been like for you?
Graduate student life has been full of joys and sorrows, and not much in between. Seriously, though, the cliché of it being like a marathon is completely accurate. I have learned a good deal about myself through the experience, and it has forced me to become a better person (the alternative is to languish in the face of challenge).
I have my wife and two children with me, so I’m constantly reminded that other people make sacrifices so I can pursue my dreams, and it keeps the pressure on me to innovate when I get into a bad spot. Most days, though, I look around our campus, I think of the wonderful undergrads and children I work with during the summer, and the world-class colleagues that I get to be around on a regular basis, and I think I am one of the most fortunate people on the planet.
What has been a source of motivation or drive for you in your graduate studies?
David, his wife, Amanda, and Eleonore Frankl, widow of Viktor Frankl. This photo was taken after David presented a lecture on dimensional ontology and philosophy of science in the private Viktor Frankl Archives in Vienna, Austria.Preparing for a career that makes use of the gifts I have been given is an enormous motivator for me. Between my Master’s degree and my Ph.D. program I worked full time for over three years in a job that provided well for my family, but yielded little personal satisfaction. I frequently felt claustrophobic in my environment. Getting an opportunity to move forward with what I started earlier in my academic pursuits felt a lot like winning the lottery for me. I’m grateful for those years because when I start to lack gratitude on a bad day, I remember what it is like not to get to exercise my potential every day, and my whole psychology shifts back to where it should be.
Name an accomplishment you are most proud of and explain why.
Being a parent has been my greatest joy to date. The great Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was fond of quoting Nietzsche’s aphorism, “The person who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Nothing is more significant to me than my own family, and I would gladly trade any past accomplishments for their well-being.
What do you do to relax? Any hobbies, collections, pastimes, favorite places to go, favorite things to do? Along these same lines, what makes you happy?
David and his family in front of space shuttle Endeavor at the California Science Center.Our family enjoys tent camping in Big Sur and going for nature walks locally. My wife is a professional photographer, so we like to bring out the cameras and capture the memories. We are also members of the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, a very active local astronomy club that conducts regular public outreach events in the community. They were on campus with their telescopes during the fall quarter. We inherited a Celestron 8 telescope that we enjoy star-hopping with. We also enjoy watching rocket launches at Vandenberg AFB, especially Space X launches.
What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
I was a resident DJ on The Underground Vibe show, a radio show with international listenership. I enjoyed spinning house music after hours for many years. I was pretty well-connected in L.A. and got to be in the DJ booth with some pretty big names. You might be able to find some pictures of me in UCI’s break-dancing club, but I will invoke plausible denial. I have put on a few pounds since those days. I still listen to house though.
What do you hope to be doing five or 10 years out of graduate school?
David HallowellI have a fairly ambitious academic project that I envision as a game-changer in math education that I am working to make a reality. I hope that it is creating a great deal more access to math achievement for a good deal more students than anything that is out there now. I also have an outline for a book on spatial reasoning in philosophy that I intend to have published in a few years. I want to teach at the university level and to conduct research with my academic project as well.
Do you have any advice for current grad students?
Aim for the Golden Mean: Focus on things in your life that help you be consistent and let go of things that drag you down and keep you from becoming your best self.