Zoltan Dienes, the former Director of the University of Sherbrooke’s International Psychomathematics Research Centre still speaks Hungarian. He emigrated to Canada in 1966 and, after a long and successful scientific career, he retired from academic life in 1988.
Dr. Sándor Klein, professor of psychology at Pécs University in Hungary and former colleague of Dr Dienes’ in Sherbrooke came in person this past summer to invite him to receive the honorary doctorate to be awarded this winter.
Zoltan Dienes’ principles of mathematical learning have been an integral part of mathematics education literature and applied both to the teaching and learning of mathematics. He has had a lasting impact on the way children learn mathematics. Although the award recognizes a whole lifetime of achievement and contribution to mathematics education, Dienes’ structured learning materials have recently been used on a new NATO base in a small town in Hungary to teach mathematics through play to children speaking different languages.