Research Projects
Center Spotlight
Dr. Daniel Chazan's ThEMaT 3 project participated in the National Science Foundation's 2015 Teaching and Learning Video Showcase. We invite you to view the 3 minute video Developing Rich Media-based Materials for Practice-based Teacher Education.
For nearly fifty years the Center for Mathematics Education in the College of Education at the University of Maryland has been a nationally prominent center for research and development, teaching, and service addressing improvement of school and college mathematics programs. The Center for Mathematics Education serves as a scholarly voice for excellence and innovation in mathematics education while nurturing the next generation of researchers and educators. Its mission is to engage in an aggressive program of research, teaching and outreach designed to build the national capacity for improving the mathematical education of all students, especially those from ethnic and racial minorities in urban settings.
The Center for Mathematics Education research agenda is guided by three main principles:
- Our research activities strive to simultaneously build critical scholarly knowledge and influence teachers' practice in meaningful ways
- Our research activities acknowledge and attempt to better understand the social and political forces that shape mathematics teaching and learning environments
- Our research activities compliment and inform one another, resulting in a rich constellation of interconnected efforts and ideas
Participation in the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning:
Since 2000, faculty in the Center for Mathematics Education, in concert with colleagues at the University of Delaware and at the Pennsylvania State University, have developed the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning (MAC-MTL) with support from a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). When it was funded, MAC-MTL was one of only two such Centers for the Teaching and Learning funded by NSF; it is now one of only ten such centers in science and mathematics across the country. The original grant supported reexamination of doctoral education in mathematics education and the development of revised programs within and across the three campuses. This grant renewal involves a change in emphasis for the MAC-MTL, supporting related research projects addressing teacher knowledge. There are three central research questions that MAC-MTL is addressing:
- How do pre-service teachers develop mathematical and pedagogical knowledge from content and methods courses and internship experiences?
- How do practicing teachers draw on and continue to develop mathematical and pedagogical knowledge in the course of their professional work?
- What is the relationship between teachers' mathematical and pedagogical knowledge and student achievement?
Two large MAC-MTL research projects are housed in the University of Maryland's Center for Mathematics Education: