Faculty

Chandra Orrill is the Chair of STEM and an Associate Professor. Chandra is interested in teachers' mathematical knowledge and how to support teachers' mathematical learning. Most of her research focuses on middle school teacher's knowledge related to multiplicative reasoning. Chandra was recently awarded a CAREER grant by the National Science Foundation to develop a better understanding of the relationship between teachers' organizations of proportional reasoning understandings and the ways they teach proportions in their classrooms. She has also been PI and Co-PI on other NSF-funded efforts to better understand teachers' knowledge and its relationship to practice. Chandra has also led many professional development efforts for elementary and middle school teachers as well as for professional developers.

Beste Güçler's present work explores how mathematical discourse develops over history and in undergraduate calculus classes with a focus on the concept of limit. In particular, she investigates how the elements of instructors’ mathematical discourse compare and contrast with those of the students’. Her general research interests include conceptual and historical development of mathematical concepts; the teaching and learning of calculus at the undergraduate level; and the connections between mathematics education and social justice issues (e.g. ability tracking, characteristics of remedial mathematics courses, students’ occupational decision-making based on their success in mathematics).

Maureen Hall specializes in literacy education, service learning, developmental reading and language arts K-12,writing pedagogies, professional development, community-making, innovation and reform Maureen Hall's current research centers on cognitive-affective approaches in teaching and learning, the integration of contemplative practices for deepening learning, and how reading and writing can change lives. She spent a year in India over 2010-2011 as a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar researching the Super Accelerated Learning Theory (SALT). Part of her sustained interest in India involves learning more about the origins and ideas underpinning various contemplative practices, as she finds that these practices hold great possibilities for deepening student learning.

Stephen Hegedus' present work is in the development and study of dynamic software environments with associated curriculum focusing on classroom connectivity and haptic (force-feedback) technology. This work also involves the professional development of pre and in-service teachers and large-scale integration of innovative technologies into K-12 curriculum. He has directed a Mathematics and Science Partnership in Massachusetts improving teacher content knowledge and growth within an entire district of grade 4-8 teachers. His research interests also include semiotics specifically the co-evolution of symbolic thinking and digital technologies, and the role of metacognition in advanced mathematical thinking. Stephen is also the founding Director of the Kaput Center for Research and Innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education, a University Center at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Sheila Macrine is a school psychologist and a reading specialist. Her research focuses on connecting the cultural, political, and institutional contexts of pedagogy and learning theory as they relate to the public sphere, democratic education and social imagination. She examines these issues on many levels including educational reform and policy, as well as, teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students. She has published numerous articles on diverse learners and recently published four books. She is currently studying the political and cultural forces at work in our national education policies.

Stephen Witzig studies the development of teachers' specialized knowledge for teaching science. Specifically, he is interested in the sources of teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge as well how experience shapes their knowledge. In addition, he conducts research on student learning. Stephen's research methods are qualitative in nature.