Sister Yvonne Marie Pothier (born 1937)[1] is a Canadian mathematics educator and educational psychologist known for her work in the development of numerical concepts in children, and an activist for refugees. She is a professor emerita of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia,[2] and a Sister of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth.[1]

Mathematics

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Pothier graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science, and earned a bachelor of education in 1977 from the University of New Brunswick.[3][2] She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of Alberta;[2] her dissertation, Partitioning: Construction of Rational Number in Young Children, was supervised by Daiyo Sawada.[1] She published a condensed version of the same work as an influential journal paper with Sawada.[4] She also coauthored the book Learning Mathematics In Elementary And Middle School: A Learner-Centered Approach (with Nadine Bezuk, W. George Cathcart, and James H. Vance, Pearson, 2003; 6th ed., 2015).

Refugee work

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In later life, Pothier became active in work with refugees, coordinating the Refugee Sponsorship Program of the Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax, visiting Sudan in this connection, and assisting in the sponsorship of many refugees in Halifax. For this work she won the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award of the Sisters of Charity,[3][5] and was commended by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Pothier, Yvonne Marie (1981), Partitioning: Construction of Rational Number in Young Children, University of Alberta, doi:10.7939/R33X83R83
  2. ^ a b c "Professors emeriti" (PDF), Calendar 2004–05, Mount Saint Vincent University, p. 82, retrieved 2021-07-20
  3. ^ a b "Class notes", Folia, Mount Saint Vincent University Alumni Association, p. 25, Spring 2011 – via Issuu
  4. ^ Pothier, Yvonne; Sawada, Daiyo (November 1983), "Partitioning: the emergence of rational number ideas in young children", Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 14 (5): 307–317, doi:10.2307/748675, JSTOR 748675
  5. ^ a b "Resolution No. 1909", Assembly 61, Session 2: Debates and Proceedings, Nova Scotia Legislature, 4 November 2010, retrieved 2021-07-20