Professor of Teacher Education
Nadine Bezuk has been conducting research on effective teaching of rational numbers and on mathematics teacher enhancement activities aimed at assisting teachers to focus on children’s thinking and to help all students succeed in mathematics. Her current interests lie in preservice mathematics teacher education, particularly in the development of mathematics methods courses aimed at preparing beginning teachers to help all students, particularly English Language Learners, succeed in mathematics.
' content[1]='Mathematics and Statistics
My interests involve researching the ways in which students development of mathematical understandings can be supported through advanced technologies. During one recent project, I worked with a team of reserachers to develop three computer-based microworlds to support students development of place value conceptions. These programs are described via the CandyFactory Programs.
' content[2]='Teacher Education
I joined the faculty of San Diego State School of Teacher Education in Fall, 1998 as a mathematics educator. Previously I taught high school mathematics at public schools in Virginia and California. My research focuses on students conceptions of integers and how to support students development of integers. In other efforts, I am working with a CRMSE group to study teachers perspectives at different years of participation in sustained professional development focused on childrens mathematical thinking. We are studying teachers beliefs, content understanding, and their noticing of classroom interactions. Previously I worked with a CRMSE group to understand the effects of a Childrens Mathematical Thinking Experience on PSTs beliefs and content knowledge.
' content[3]='Teacher Education (Associate Member)
Description/Bio Coming Soon...
' content[4]='Teacher Education
Vick`s research interests focus on understanding and promoting the professional development of teachers. I hope to better understand and inform the field of professional development by designing, directing, and studying professional development opportunities that involve long-term collaborations with teachers and school districts. I am also interested in the investigation of young childrens mathematical thinking; research in this area forms the basis for my professional development work with teachers. I developed these interests during my graduate studies, when I worked on the Cognitively Guided Instruction project and facilitated professional development workshops for mathematics teachers across the country.
' content[5]='Mathematics and Statistics
Description/Bio Coming Soon...
' content[6]='Mathematics and Statistics
Ricardo Nemirovsky, Director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, has a background in physics, which he studied in his native Argentina, Mexico and the US. He became interested in science education and earned his Doctor of Education degree at Harvard in 1992. Since then he has been the co-director of the Research Center at TERC, an educational non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Nemirovsy`s research program focuses on an investigation of the embodied nature of cognition, with an emphasis on the roles of body motion and kinesthesia in mathematics learning. Proponents of embodied cognition hold that cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body`s interactions with the world and with others and that perceptuo-motor activity is embedded in the use and production of tools and symbols. Dr. Nemirovsky`s pioneering research on the embodied nature of cognition and on the creative use of mathematical artifacts has been influential and has resulted in a number of well-cited papers. Over the past ten years, he has obtained over $9 million in external funding. At the national level and international levels, Dr. Nemirovsky has distinguished himself as a leader who works with a broad variety of researchers ranging from physicists to semioticians and most recently cognitive neuroscientists. Additionally, he has designed numerous mechanical devices and software to enrich the learning of mathematics, including several math-oriented exhibits for science and technology museums.
' content[7]='Mathematics and Statistics
Description/Bio Coming Soon...
' content[8]='Teacher Education
Randy grew up in the San Fernando Valley in California, where I earned a degree in mathematics and then a fifth year single-subject teaching credential in mathematics. I worked my way through college "busting tires" at Sears, and in my spare time I taught CPR courses for the American National Red Cross and I served as a Big Brother of Greater Los Angeles. I spent the next two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching mathematics at a junior high school and in a teacher training institute in Liberia, West Africa, where, while out for a run one afternoon in the bush, I decided I enjoyed working with prospective teachers even though I did not know what I was doing. I decided then to pursue a graduate degree in mathematics education. I returned to the U.S. and taught mathematics in an inner-city Los Angeles high school and then in Canyon Country, north of Los Angeles. While teaching, I worked on an M.S. degree in mathematics at night and I also served on a crisis intervention help-line. Upon finishing my M.S. degree, I married, moved to Wisconsin, and studied for my doctorate under the direction of Tom Carpenter.
' content[9]='Teacher Education
Gregorio is a native of Imperial Valley and has worked in higher education (San Diego State University--Imperial Valley Campus and Imperial Valley College) in the County for the last 15 years. His work has focused either on the teaching of mathematics or the professional development of teachers of mathematics. Outside of his work, Gregorio dedicates his time to his family.
' content[10]='Mathematics and Statistics
Chris directs an NSF-funded research project on the learning and teaching of dynamical systems. The project team is investigating how pedagogical approaches and instructional design principles that have been successful at promoting student learning in earlier grade levels can be adapted to the university setting. Central to this work is careful attention to student thinking and a systematic, theory-driven study of the social interactions in which meanings are established, where norms for convincing arguments and presentations are negotiated, and where students can connect more formal mathematical developments to their personal experience.
' content[11]='Teacher Education
Rafaele grew up in Tucson, Arizona where I attended the University of Arizona and received a degree in mathematics. After graduation, I received a fellowship for a Master`s program in special education at the Univesity of Southern California. After those studies I returned to teach at Tucson High School. During the nine years that I was there I was a teacher, department chair, and Mexican folkloric dance instructor. In my spare time I took doctoral classes. After receiving my doctorate in 1979, I was hired as a senior research analyst for an externally funded project at San Diego State University. The following year I was hired as a faculty member in the Secondary Education Department.
' content[12]='Teacher Education (associate member)
Description/Bio Coming Soon...
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' // Science Education People content[20]='Educator/Researcher
I grew up in Memphis, TN, and lived there until I completed my B.S. Then I moved to AZ to pursue my M.S. After completing my formal education, I accepted a research position with IBM at their Watson Research facility in NY. In graduate school I examined the atomic structure of semi-conductor interfaces, and at IBM I examined ceramic structures. I left IBM after two and a half years to move to San Diego. Since coming here 8 years ago, I have been teaching at the university level. My interests have shifted from traditional science to physics education. I have been associated with SDSU for 7 years as an instructor, researcher and project investigator.
' content[21]='Professor of Physics
For the past twenty years I have been involved in research and development in physics education. Initially my group and I did detailed studies of student understanding in various topical areas of physics, and later we studied students` epistemological beliefs (beliefs about physics knowledge and about learning). We then focused on developing instructional strategies that addressed the student difficulties observed by our group and others in the field. Many of these strategies involved the use of computer technology, including the use of videodisks, animations, graphics programs and simulations. Over the past six years my group has focused on studying how students learn in a technology-rich collaborative learning environment, and we have been particularly interested in developing ways that computer simulations can be used to complement and extend hands-on experiences of students and scaffold their development of target physics models. From 19952000 I directed a large team of physics educators (University and high school) and software design experts in developing a pedagogy, curriculum materials and computer software to support a classroom environment where students have primary responsibility for developing robust and valid ideas in physics (the CPU Project). More recently I have helped direct projects involving the development of a year-long physical science course for middle school students (CIPS Project) and a physics course for prospective and practicing elementary teachers (CPU-Elementary project). Each of these projects incorporates the use of computer technology in a constructivist-oriented learning environment. They also provide the context for rich research studies of how students learn and how teachers teach. The recent CIPS Professional Development project involves the development of both workshop and web-based materials to help teachers implement the middle-school CIPS curriculum with high fidelity.
' content[22]='Professor
I spent the majority of my earlier youth in northern Indiana, approximately 20 minutes from Chicago , Illinois . My informal interests include a variety of sports, reading, and science exploration focused on hiking and camping expeditions. My work experiences include serving as an assistant to an ophthalmologist, chemist at United States Steel, secondary teacher and university professor. Most recently, I am more involved in national and international consultancies. As an aside, I have conducted workshops for university professors in China and Thailand . The experiences of being in the minority were exacting. Despite the challenging environments, especially in China , I thoroughly enjoyed the people, and came to realize just how much we take for granted in this country. Survival in different cultures was very different from taking the requisite language courses as part of the university requirements. Learning Mandarin and other languages opened up my world, serving as an enabling factor in my communication with others in our global society. Along with a colleague, I conducted workshops in Dalian, China. Participants were professors of biological sciences from various provinces in China. In the beginning, an interpreter was used to communicate with the participants. Below is a picture of the group working together. I also held meetings with science education professors, along with representatives of Thailand`s Science Teachers Association (IPST). I became a part of this collaboration due to the fact that my main liaison in Thailand is a former graduate student at Purdue University where she was an Assistant Professor.
' content[23]='Professor in Biology
San Diego State University has been carrying out various aspects of ecological research on chaparral and arctic ecosystems since the early 1970`s. Activities have dealt with ecosystem modeling, basic physiological characteristics of the plants, nutrient dynamics of the plants and soil, water use, above and below ground biomass, light, energy, temperature, wind speed and precipitation. In the chaparral, work has taken place primarily in California and Chile with cooperative studies being done in other Mediterranean regions including South Africa, Australia, France, Spain and Italy. Arctic research has focused on the North Slope of Alaska, the Seaward Peninsula, and the Taiga around Fairbanks Alaska but recently has included Iceland, Western Siberia and the Far East in Russia. In the Arctic, the focus was to understand the system so as to minimize any potential negative effects of oil development while in the chaparral, the major concern has been damage to homes due to wildfire and maintaining an optimal age stand so as to yield the maximum amount of water from a watershed, minimize erosion and support a healthy and diverse wildlife population. The GCRG is still primarily working on tundra and chaparral vegetation but the focus since 1989 has been to examine plant and ecosystem reponses to elevated CO2 as well as CO2 fluxes in the natural ecosystems.
' content[24]='Associate Professor of Science Education and Associate Director of CRMSE
While teaching elementary school in Oregon, I realized how few teachers include science in their curricula. While earning my master`s degree in biology, I found myself creating curricula as I did my research on epibenthic algal mats in salt marshes. Finally, through my Ph.D., I decided to "officially" focus on science education. I am interested in finding ways to help elementary teachers include science in their classes. In my work I examine teacher beliefs about science and science instruction, as well as how teachers can become more reflective in their own practice. I`m also interested in how young children think about scientific principles and concepts. My current projects include exploring the practices of teachers who have been certified to teach elementary school (multiple subjects) but who have been hired to teach science at the middle school level. I am a co-PI on the Partnerships Involving the Scientific Community in Elementary Science (PISCES), an NSF-funded project (http://pisces.sdsu.edu) in which we place science graduate students in elementary classes to support quality science instruction and learning. I am a PI on the CPEC-funded BAHIA project (http://bahia.sdsu.edu/)in which we take urban high school students to Baja to conduct marine ecology research for five weeks each summer. I teach TE 910C, Elementary Science Methods; TE610C, Seminar in Science Education; TE 605, Reflective Practice and Peer Coaching; TE 638, Science and Literacy; and TE 790, Science for English Language Learners. I have co-coordinated the science education master`s program and I am currently developing the International Student Teaching program in Torreon, Mexico. In ten years, I hope students will enter my classroom with fabulous memories of elementary school science instead of saying "I don`t think science is taught in elementary schools."
' content[25]='Associate Professor of Biology
Kathy Williams graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts. She then went on to earn her Ph. D. in Population Biology from Stanford University in 1981. She spent 3 years in Canada doing a post-doc at the University of British Columbia studying population dynamics of insects used in the biological control of weeds. From there she moved to the University of Arkansas where she spent another 3 years studying the emergence of millions of periodical cicadas that appear only every 13 years and their effects on predator populations.
' // Interdisciplinary People content[30]='Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
From my theoretical perspective and teaching experience, students` constructing examples for application is important for their developing deep understandings of theoretical constructs. While students are certainly responsible for constructing their own understandings, my role as an instructor is to provide mediating tools around which socially situated cognition can occur. I accomplish this through having students work in groups to solve complex problems. As a teacher-scholar, I am constantly reflecting on my own teaching practice, reading current research on learning and instruction, and modifying my pedagogy to better serve my students.
' content[31]='Professor of Psychology
I am the Director of the Cognitive Ergonomic Research Facility at SDSU and President of EyeTracking, Inc., a privately-held company that uses eye tracking to evaluate visual products. For the past 15 years I have conducted basic research sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Education. Currently I direct three major research projects, all of which involve the use of eye-tracking measures to investigate aspects of cognitive processing and decision making. My research has focused on two main areas: cognition and assessment. I am also working with new methods for assessing cognitive workload with psychological and physiological measures.
' content[32]='Professor of Psychology
My interests are in studying cognitive processes involved in problem solving and in using research results to design effective instruction. My current interest is to use research on embodied cognition in the design of computer animation to improve estimation, problem solving, and reasoning skills.
' content[33]='Associate Professor of Education & Co-Director, Center for Equity and Biliteracy Education Research (CEBER)
I teach courses in the bilingual teacher credential and graduate programs. My research focuses on the use of sociotransformative constructivism (STC) to help teachers teach for understanding in diverse school contexts. STC is a theoretical framework that merges multicultural education (a theory of social justice) with social constructivism (a theory of learning). I was born in Venezuela, but I consider myself to be a citizen of the world. In my view, countries create artificial boundaries for economical reasons that get in the way of celebrating the diversity of cultures and languages we have. Therefore, I prefer to say that I am a Latino and a citizen of the world committed to working for social justice through education and research at all grade levels.
' // Emeritus People content[40]='Professor of Mathematics Education
I grew up in the South Bronx and taught junior and senior high school mathematics, served as a research assistant or associate at Columbia and Stanford Universities; and was on the faculties of Stanford and Pennsylvania State Universities. I have been a Professor in the Mathematical Sciences Department at San Diego State University since 1976. During that time I have received numerous grants to enhance the professional development of teachers of mathematics (the San Diego Mathematics Project, the Authentic Assessment Institute, and a Pre-College Teacher Development Grant funded by the National Science Foundation). In my work with Teacher Professional Development I have served on various committees and/or boards of professional organizations, among them the Greater San Diego Mathematics Council, the California Mathematics Council, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. I was a working group member of the NCTM Commission which drafted the "NCTM Professional Teaching Standards".
' content[41]='Professor Emerita of Physics
Feher represents the informal learning component in the Joint UCSDSU Doctoral Program in Math and Science Education. Her current research interests focus on problems of design of tools and activities for science learning. Feher has been heavily involved in the development of interactive exhibits and exhibit-based programs at San Diego`s museum, the Reuben Fleet Science Center. With major funding from the National Science Foundation, she has created three exhibitions ("About Faces," "Symmetry, A Universe by Design," and "Signals, From Semaphores to Cyberspace") that are traveling nationally and internationally. Feher spearheaded the activity- and inquiry-based curriculum in science for prospective elementary school teachers at SDSU.
' content[42]='Professor Emeritus of Biology
Kathleen M. Fisher is Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Diego State University and former Director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. Dr. Fisher has a B.S. in science from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California— Davis. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the Atomic Energy Commission in 1970 and had a Fulbright Scholarship to work with a science university in Malaysia (Universiti Sains) in 1980. Fisher has worked in biology education research since the early 70s when she produced a televised two-semester genetics course in a novel video-autotutorial format. The televised course was used to teach about 7,000 students over a seven-year period, and was followed by a televised course in scientific writing. More recently Fisher collaborated with the Science Media Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, where she participated in several video series including the Private Universe and Minds of Our Own programs. Fisher taught a capstone inquiry-based biology course for prospective teachers for more than ten years. The lessons that she developed, now available on the Internet as a resource for practicing teachers and home schooling parents www.BiologyLessons.sdsu.edu, have won recognition from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Pacific Bell Knowledge Network, and the British Schoolzone. Fisher and the SemNet Research Group designed and developed the SemNet TM knowledge construction tool (1983-87). The computer-based idea networks serve as a mirror of the students` thinking, encouraging reflection and refinement of their ideas. SemNet has evolved into the Semantica Software Series of tools for knowledge capture, organization, and transfer www.semanticresearch.com which is of considerable interest to the intelligence communities. Fisher has served on Editorial and Executive Boards for several science education organizations.
' content[43]='Professor of Mathematics
I grew up on a farm in North Dakota but never developed the talent to be a farmer. I started teaching mathematics at Texas Southern University in Houston in 1965 and then spent two years at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In 1972 I joined the Mathematics Department at San Diego State, and I have remained on the faculty ever since. However, for three years (1979-81, 2000-01) I was a "rotator" at the National Science Foundation`s Research in Science Education program, and for seven years (1986-93) I served as Professor of Mathematics and Education at Washington State University, including two years as a department chair in the College of Education. I also served two years as Director of San Diego State`s Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education (CRMSE) during 1996-98. I started the process of retirement in 2002 and now teach part-time in SDSU1s Faculty Early Retirement Program. I also work as a consultant on a variety of research and teacher education projects. Currently I divide my time between San Diego and Goleta, California, where my wife Susan is Professor and Director of the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
' content[44]='Professor Emerita
Judith Sowder is Professor Emerita of Mathematics and Statistics at San Diego State University. For many years her research focused on children’s development of number sense, but more recently on the instructional effects of teachers’ mathematical knowledge at the elementary and middle school level. She served as editor of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education from 1996 to 2000 and was elected to serve on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Board of Directors from 2000 to 2003. In 1996 she received the San Diego State University Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Teaching, Work and Contributions to the University and Community, and in 2000 the Lifetime Achievement Award from NCTM. She served on the International Committee (steering committee) for International Group for Psychology in Mathematics Education from 1992-1996. She has received research funding for several research projects from the National Science Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education, and a grant from QUALCOMM to develop a Professional Development Collaborative between San Diego State University and surrounding school districts. She continues to serve on advisory boards for several projects, and is currently coauthoring a mathematics textbook for elementary and middle school teachers.
' content[45]='Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus)
My recent interest in college students learning of mathematical proof/justification continues, as does an earlier interest in problem solving, especially students work on story problems.
' // Staff People content[50]='Program Manager, Professional Development Collaborative
Lori is the Program Manager for the PDC, and the San Diego Math Project. She oversees the office support staff, assists the PIs by managing grants/funds, and all day-to-day operations for the project. Contact her for anything relating to PDC, SDMP and the summer math institutes.
' content[51]='Technology Coordinator, STEP Project
Candy has worked with Randy Philipps group for many years. Contact her on any matters relating to the STEP or IMAP projects.
' content[52]='Program Assistant, MSED joint doctoral program
Having worked here since Fall 1987, Debbie is CRMSEs senior staff member. She assists the Coordinator and students of the Mathematics and Science Education (MSED) Ph.D. program. Contact her if you have questions about the MSED program.
' content[53]='CRMSE Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to the Director and Associate Director
Contact Judith for assistance in any matter relating to CRMSE, or if youre unable to reach the person you need.
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