Sybilla Beckmann, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics at the University of Georgia. She has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and taught at Yale University as a J. W. Gibbs Instructor of Mathematics.

Beckmann has done research in Arithmetic Geometry, but her current main interests are the mathematical education of teachers and mathematics content for students at all levels, but especially for Pre-K through the middle grades. Beckmann developed three mathematics content courses for prospective elementary school teachers at the University of Georgia and wrote a book for such courses, Mathematics for Elementary Teachers, published by Addison-Wesley, now in a second edition. She is interested in helping college faculty learn to teach mathematics content courses for elementary and middle grades teachers and she works with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows toward that end. As part of this effort, Beckmann directs the Mathematicians Educating Future Teachers (MEFT) component of the University of Georgia Mathematics Department’s VIGRE II grant. Beckmann was a member of the writing team for the NCTM’s Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics, was a member of the Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics of the National Research Council and co-author of its report, Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity, and has worked on the development of several state mathematics standards.

Recently, Beckmann taught a sixth-grade mathematics class every day at a local public school in order to better understand school mathematics teaching. Beckmann has won several teaching awards, including the General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professorship awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia.

Consulted on Mathematics