简介

Dr. Daniel Chazan is a professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at The University of Maryland College Park, co-Director of Terrapin Teachers, and Director of the Center for Mathematics Education. The Center for Mathematics Education does research on the teaching of mathematics in local urban schools, prepares teachers for elementary and secondary schools at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels, educates researchers and teacher educators, and does outreach to schools. Chazan studies the teaching of mathematics in compulsory high school settings as a practice, embedded inside societal institutions, within a society with particular kinds of structure, that is carried out by individuals with their own identities and knowledge. Such a view of the teaching of mathematics challenges him to integrate theoretical perspectives and orientations, for example, toward mathematics as a discipline, school as an institution, and students and teachers as members of communities with particular positions in our society. Chazan's professional interests include: student-centered mathematics teaching, the potential of history and philosophy of mathematics for informing such teaching, the role of technology in supporting student classroom exploration, exploring possibilities for constructive links between educational scholarship and practice, and the preparation of future teachers. Together with Patricio Herbst of the University of Michigan, with the Thought Experiments in Mathematics Education (ThEMaT) project, he has developed a set of animations representing algebra teaching and materials available through the LessonSketch.org platform. As a result of a atypical clinical faculty position at Michigan State University (where Chazan was on faculty from 1990-2002), and supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Academy of Education, in 2000, he published Beyond formulas in mathematics and teaching: Dynamics of the High School Algebra Classroom (Teachers College Press). An edited volume, Embracing Reason: Egalitarian Ideals and High School Mathematics Teaching (Taylor Francis, 2007), follows up on the earlier book and concentrates on the long-term Professional Development School relationship between the Holt High School Mathematics Department and Michigan State University.