Mathematics education has been a focus of attention around the world over the last few decades. On one hand, scholars, designers, and practitioners have produced exciting new developments in research, curriculum, and assessment. New standards for instruction and curriculum have been developed, and an international discourse community on in mathematics education has grown. On the other hand, mathematics education has been the target of intense criticism and debate among different stakeholders and communities. The need for new scholars and leaders in mathematics education is great. New advances in the field –– in practice and in research –– as well as focused concern make it a particularly good time to earn a graduate degree in mathematics education. Our doctoral program in UM’s School of Education prepares its graduates to be leaders, creative scholars, and teachers in mathematics education. With a concern for the interdisciplinary nature of the significant problems in our field, we create opportunities for our graduate students to learn to work across conventional domains –– mathematics as discipline, the world of schooling, professional education, educational scholarship, and policy.
The School of Education offers Mathematics Education degrees at both the Master's and Doctoral levels.
The doctoral specialization in Mathematics Education prepares scholars to work as researchers, expert practitioners, or policy professionals with a special focus on the teaching and learning of mathematics. In this specialization, mathematics education is considered in its intersections with the nature of mathematics as a discipline; considerations of teaching and teacher learning; the design, implementation and effects of curriculum and instructional interventions and their implementation and effects; contemporary developments in learning theories and technologies; issues of equity and social justice; and the framing and enacting of educational policies.
Doctoral students in mathematics education take a common set of core courses, dealing with curriculum, learning, teaching, and research in mathematics education. They also select electives from other areas, and from programs and departments outside the School of Education. In addition, we engage our students in two practicum experiences, to provide focused opportunities to learn to use what they are learning in the contexts important to work in mathematics education. Our faculty is engaged in a wide variety of projects, both within the School, and nationally and internationally. Hence, myriad opportunities exist for graduate students to gain professional knowledge and skill through their involvement in these projects.
Students in the mathematics education specialization may work on any portion of the span from pre-K through college, and they may focus on mathematics as encountered in or out of school. In an intensive program consisting of coursework, practica, and apprenticeships, students engage in practice and scholarship alongside nationally recognized specialists in their field. Many opportunities are provided for students to work collaboratively with each other and with faculty, but students are encouraged and expected to develop and examine their own research questions and emphases.
This degree specialization is housed within the Educational Studies program, which fosters links among students and faculty in a number of specializations sharing a commitment to the integration of theory and research on teaching, learning, and educational access in P-16 settings.
It is also worth noting that, as a unit within Michigan's Educational Studies Program, the Mathematics Education PhD program is a national partner in the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching.
To assist those interested in the various concentrations, here are the names of faculty members, student ambassadors, and recent graduates involved with the Mathematics Education specialization. If you have a general question about the program, or would like to talk to a current student about the program, please visit the Mathematics Education contacts page.
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Faculty: To view a faculty member's research interests, click on their name (links open up a new window).
Ambassadors are students who have agreed to answer your questions about the program. We know there are times when you really want to hear about the program from a student's perspective, and these students have agreed to share their experiences. If you have general Mathematics Education questions, please contact the program directly here. Remember: To help us alert you to recruitment events and the latest admissions updates, be sure to also fill out a graduate program inquiry form
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Ambassadors:
Wendy Aaron, wendyaar@umich.edu
Charalambos Charalambous, chcharal@umich.edu
Yaa Cole, yaacole@umich.edu
Gloriana Gonzalez, glorigon@umich.edu
Babette Benken, California State University, Long Beach: bbenken@csulb.edu
Alison Castro, University of Illinois, Chicago: amcastro@math.uic.edu
Doug Corey, Brigham Young University, e-mail: corey@mathed.byu.edu
Gabriel Stylianides, University of Pittsburgh: gstylian@pitt.edu
Andreas Stylianides, Oxford University: andreas.stylianides@edstud.ox.ac.uk
Ed Wall
Majoring in Mathematics Education at the University of Michigan gives you many opportunities to work with faculty members who are leaders in the Mathematics Education field.
Here is a list of some of the projects that Mathematics Education faculty and students are working on now, or have been involved with in the past.
Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics
Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education
Study of Instructional Improvement
Geometry, Reasoning, and Instructional Practices (GRIP)
Mathematics Teaching and Learning to Teach Project (MTLT):
mod 4: Materials Development Project
Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT)
Teaching Mathematics in Community Colleges
Comet Project (Cases of Mathematics Instruction to Enhance Teaching
EDUC 7XX: Mathematics Curriculum: Research and Development
This course investigates the intended and implemented school mathematics curriculum, its sources, history, and improvement models, with a particular emphasis on the U. S. and grades K-12, but also including postsecondary curriculum, international perspectives, and historical analyses. The course examines topics such as relationships between curriculum development and research, key curriculum policy documents, alternative theoretical orientations to curriculum, disciplinary foundations of mathematics and their connections with school curriculum, and the implementation of curriculum.
EDUC 7YY: The Study of Mathematical Thinking and Learning
This course examines research on children's and adults' understanding and reasoning in mathematics; alternative perspectives on how children and adults learn mathematics and on how to account for what they know and learn; different main traditions of theory and research on mathematics learning. Topics may include theoretical and research issues on mathematical thinking and learning from cognitive, constructivist, sociocultural, or situated perspectives; historical development of research on mathematics learning, theoretical perspectives on mathematics learning developed within the mathematics education community.
EDUC 7ZZ: The Study of Mathematics Instruction
This course introduces graduate students to the study of teaching and learning mathematics in classrooms. Topics include historical and comparative analyses of practice, approaches to the study of instruction, and theoretical and scholarly perspectives on instruction developed within and outside the mathematics education community. The course probes ways in which the work of mathematics teaching has been recorded, understood, and appraised, and how these perspectives influence conceptions of and approaches to teacher education and development.
EDUC 711: Research in Mathematics Education
This course acquaints doctoral students with a diverse sample of empirical studies in mathematics education, as well as with controversial contemporary issues being debated within the community. The course focuses on clusters of problems that mathematics education researchers investigate or have investigated, examining objects and methods of study. Students will develop familiarity with literature in mathematics education, as well as with approaches to selecting and defining significant directions for research. The course provides students with understanding of the history of mathematics education research and its relationships with mathematics education and educational research.
EDUC 657: Practicum in Mathematics Education
This is a guided opportunity in two significant contexts of mathematics education. Examples include work in a course for prospective teachers of mathematics, in a professional development program, on a curriculum or assessment development project, on a research project, or on a policy committee or project. Students work closely with faculty members, gaining access to their thinking about the work, and developing associated practices, issues, knowledge and skills. The practica may be taken before or following candidacy.
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