Mathematics Education Programs

Instructors Tim McKeny and Susan Nolan explain how to integrate mathematics and literature.

Ohio University offers a full range of undergraduate and graduate mathematics education programs, including an active doctoral program. Mathematics education faculty Gregory Foley and Timothy McKeny are in the Department of Teacher Education, and Robert Klein is in the Department of Mathematics. In addition, Educational Studies Professors Craig Howley and George Johanson have led the research initiative for ACCLAIM: the Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment, and Instruction in Mathematics—a National Science Foundation Center for Learning and Teaching. Since 2001, this research initiative has produced 24 peer-reviewed articles, 40 working papers, 15 occasional papers, 5 monographs, 8 digests, and 19 issues of The Rural Mathematics Educator, an online research newsletter.
Faculty research interests include mathematics language acquisition, rural mathematics education, curriculum development, teacher professional development, and incorporating technology into mathematics instruction.

Current Projects. Program faculty are engaged in several mathematics education projects:

Drs. Foley, Johanson, and colleagues have initiated a multi-faceted Advanced Quantitative Reasoning (AQR) project. AQR is developing an upper level secondary school course in quantitative literacy with emphases in the areas of measurement, probability, statistics, geometry, discrete mathematics, and mathematical modeling. The AQR course provides a national model for a post-Algebra II alternative to Precalculus. The AQR project is developing student text materials and teacher support materials and is investigating the nature and level of learning that takes place.
Drs. Foley, Connor, and colleagues are developing and investigating related Advanced Teacher Capacity professional development.
Dr. McKeny and colleagues in Reading Education, the Literacy Center, and the English Department are researching language and literacy strategies for teachers of mathematics in Grades K–3 through the Better Math Through Literacy professional development program.
Dr. Klein, Drs. Craig and Aimee Howley, and colleagues are investigating place-based mathematics education.
Drs. Foley and McKeny are studying instruments, protocols, and rubrics to measure proficiency in the following areas of the mathematics register: vocabulary knowledge, oral reading, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, and writing. Their aim is to develop or adapt assessment instruments to measure student and teacher mathematical language proficiency in their ongoing funded projects.