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Survey: UGA Math Education Doctoral Program ‘Strongest’ in Nation Writer: Catharin Shepard, 706/583-0811, catharin@uga.edu Contact: Denise S. Mewborn, dmewborn@uga.edu
Jim Wilson, (center) professor of math education, projects a problem on the screen during a summer program for middle school teachers. Photo by Michael Childs
The University of Georgia’s doctoral program in mathematics education is ranked as the strongest in the nation in a recent survey of more than 70 of its peer institutions.
UGA’s College of Education awards more doctoral degrees in mathematics education each year than any school in the country except Columbia University’s Teacher’s College.
The survey asked respondents to identify “particularly strong” doctoral programs in mathematics education. Of the 40 institutions nominated, only three schools, including UGA, were named by a large majority. The responding institutions account for more than 80 percent of doctorates in mathematics education.
The study, supported by the Center for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum—funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation—was conducted by Robert Reys, Dawn Teuscher and Nevels Nevels at the University of Missouri and Bob Glasgow at Southwest Baptist University.
Recognized as a national research leader, UGA’s mathematics education program combines the expertise of its internationally known faculty with the energy and innovation of its rising young scholars. Its faculty includes Regents Professor Jeremy Kilpatrick, Distinguished Research Professor Leslie P. Steffe, Meigs Professor Larry Hatfield and James Wilson, who received the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
The faculty’s influential research has included topics such as mathematics curricula, students’ learning of fractions and algebra, mathematics teacher education, uses of technology in mathematics learning, and equity issues related to the teaching and learning of mathematics.
The college’s graduate program in secondary education, which includes mathematics education, has been ranked among the top 10 in the nation in the annual surveys by U.S. News & World Report since they began publishing them nearly two decades ago.
“We are honored to have been identified by our peers as a place that they would send their own students for a doctorate in mathematics education,” said Denise S. Mewborn, professor of mathematics education and head of the department of mathematics and science education. “Doctoral students are the lifeblood of our department because they push us to ask new questions, to investigate old questions in new ways, and constantly stay at the top of our game. We take our work with doctoral students very seriously because they are the ones who will carry on the work that we have begun.”
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