Steve Bennoun: A UCLA Educator Bridging Mathematics and Life Sciences

Steve Bennoun is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychology, focusing on enhancing student learning in mathematics and science courses. His work primarily involves mathematics courses with strong connections to biology and the life sciences, integrating active learning methodologies.

Academic Background and Early Career

Steve Bennoun's academic journey began at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where he earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in mathematics. He then pursued his doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada, culminating in a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Teaching at UCLA

After completing his Ph.D., Steve Bennoun was hired by the Division of Life Sciences to teach the course LS 30 Mathematics for Life Scientists. At UCLA, Dr. Bennoun has taught a wide variety of math courses both as a graduate student and as a lecturer. In 2018, he was presented with the Distinguished Teaching Award by the UCLA Math Department.

Research Interests and Activities

Bennoun's scholarly interests are broadly focused on understanding which teaching methods best support student learning and how to improve undergraduate mathematics education. He is particularly interested in assessing the impact of curriculum redesign for college mathematics courses. His research is concentrated in three areas: (1) How interesting but educationally “irrelevant” content such as anecdotes, images, and humor impacts motivational predictors of student achievement and persistence in STEM majors. (2) Interventions to foster growth mindsets and internal loci of control in undergraduate students, and the impact of these interventions on the development of self-efficacy and persistence.

Supported by a National Science Foundation grant, he currently works on evaluating how one can implement interleaving, the idea of mixing the practice of different topics, in undergraduate mathematics courses. He also investigates how students navigate between different graphical representations (time series and phase plane trajectories) of solutions to differential equations.

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Innovative Teaching Methods

Professor Bennoun is known for his innovative and engaging teaching methods. Reviews from students highlight his ability to make classes incredibly engaging and fun. He incorporates active learning strategies, such as iClicker questions during lectures, to encourage participation and facilitate actual learning. The iClicker questions are designed to illustrate common misunderstandings, but are graded on participation, ensuring no deduction of points for tricky questions.

He is described as one of the most genuine, kind, and helpful people, who takes time to acknowledge the social aspects of mathematics. He spent a few lectures taking time to acknowledge the influence of BIPOC and WOC in mathematics, and it made learning the content even more worthwhile! He goes through everything and explains it well, and the active learning style of having class participation really really helps.

Transforming Calculus Education

Bennoun has been involved in transforming calculus education, particularly for life sciences students. His work focuses on moving from procedural calculus to studying dynamical systems and bifurcation theory. A key aspect of his approach involves viewing a differential equation not as an equation, but as a vector field, a function from state space into tangent space. At each point in state space, the vector field gives the change instructions that apply at that point. This geometric approach embodies 20th century rigor, but it also decouples the idea of math from the approach that math is all about banging on formulas with symbolic techniques to produce other formulas: the rigorous geometric concept also makes for better pedagogy.

Course Structure and Student Support

Professor Bennoun's courses are structured to promote learning and provide ample support for students. A typical course includes weekly quizzes, coding labs, homework assignments, and pre-lab videos and quizzes. The quizzes are designed to be easy, with multiple attempts allowed to facilitate actual learning. The labs are coding-based, and prelab quizzes are provided to help students prepare.

To further support students, Professor Bennoun and his TAs offer extensive resources, including office hours, practice exams, and courselets. The TAs are helpful in answering questions, and students can attend any TA's office hours. He also uploads a lot of resources before the midterm and final, including practice exams, courselets, and office hours that he uploads, in which he goes through any homework question students are struggling on. The homework is graded on completion, but you have to show all your work or you get points off for each problem you don't show it for. Also, Professor Bennoun's TAs give an egregious amount of partial credit on the exams. On some questions, you get half credit for even attempting it. You can literally get a full problem wrong and still get a C on that problem if you show understanding of the underlying concepts or if the TA decides to give you free points.

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He is also flexible, if you can come to class, he posts them online so you can do them for participation.

Emphasis on Active Learning

Bennoun emphasizes active learning in his classes. He often starts with rather simple concepts, and I can tell that he slowly paves the way to harder parts through multiple examples. He sometimes designs tricky questions in iClicker to illustrate common misunderstandings (but because iClicker is graded on participation, no worries of deducting points because of tricky questions!) At the end of each section, he gives a summary of the materials.

Publications and Presentations

Steve Bennoun has contributed to the field through various publications and presentations. Notable works include:

Bennoun, S., Garfinkel, A., & Deeds, E. (2023) Bridging the Gap Between the Biology and Calculus by Teaching Modeling, In T. Dreyfus, A. S. González-Martín, E. Nardi, J. Monaghan & P. W. Thompson (Eds.), The Learning and Teaching of Calculus Across Disciplines - Proceedings of the Second Calculus Conference (pp. 93-96). MatRIC.
Garfinkel, A., Bennoun, S., Deeds, E., & Van Valkenburgh, B. (2022). Teaching Dynamics to Biology Undergraduates: The UCLA Experience. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 84(3), 43.
Bennoun, S. (2022). Transforming a Calculus for Life Sciences Course: Moving From Procedural Calculus to Studying Dynamical Systems and Bifurcation Theory. PRIMUS, 32(2), 246-259.
Bennoun, S., & Holm, T. (2020).
Bennoun, S., Haeberli, P., & Schaub, M. (2018).
Haeberli, P., & Bennoun, S. (2019). Quelles articulations entre savoir et expérience dans deux formations en pédagogie universitaire? [On the Connections between Knowledge and Experience in Two University Teacher Training Programs]. In M.-F. Carnus, D. Bailet, G. Therriault, & V. Vincent (Eds.), Rapport au(x) savoir(s) et formation des enseignants: Un dialogue nécessaire et fructueux (pp. 151-167).
Bennoun, S., Haeberli, P., & Schaub, M. (2016). What Values are Implicitly Conveyed in Teacher Training Programmes: A Hidden Curriculum Perspective on Faculty Development. In C. Winberg & V.

These publications reflect his commitment to enhancing mathematics education and bridging the gap between mathematics and other disciplines, particularly biology.

Student Perspectives

Student reviews consistently praise Professor Bennoun for his clarity, helpfulness, and genuine care for his students. Many describe him as the best professor they have had at UCLA, highlighting his engaging lectures, approachable demeanor, and willingness to assist struggling students.

Students appreciate his clear explanations of complex concepts, his open-door policy for questions, and his efforts to provide additional resources for those who need them. The relaxed and fun atmosphere he creates in his classes is also frequently mentioned.

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