Professor Russell Jay Hendel holds a doctorate in theoretical mathematics from M.I.T., an associateship from the Society of Actuaries, and is in a doctoral program at the Spertus Institute for a degree in Jewish studies. He is currently an Adjunct II faculty member at Towson University which has recently become a Center of Actuarial Excellence. His research and publication interests include discrete number theory, actuarial science, biblical exegesis, the theory of pedagogy, applications of technology to pedagogy, and the interaction of mathematics and the arts. He regularly reviews books for the Mathematical Association of America.

A paradigm example of multiple modalities occurs with teaching functions, such as cost, profit, and marketing functions. A superior pedagogic technique emphasizes the multiple modalities of algebraic, computational, tabular and graphical representations of functions. Exposure to the four modalities significantly enriches function comprehension experience. Multiple modalities are advocated by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards, by the Common Core State Standards as well as by the principles of Universal Design in Learning. Hendel recently advocated four central pillars to pedagogical excellence: executive function (that is, multiple modalities), goal setting, attribution theory and self-efficacy. This presentation explores multiple examples in diverse educational and training settings where use of multiple modalities by itself may fail unless there is also present adequate goal-setting, the sequencing of a task into a collection of clearly defined, achievable but challenging subtasks.