Mathematics Education PhD – Mathematics

Enactive Educational Ecosystem for the Emergent Learning of Polar Graphing

wiesea — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:28:23 +0000

Each week in class, they pose and pursue their own mathematical inquiries into the wild world of the polar coordinate system through pole-based movement and with other invented tools, tasks, and practices. As they do so, they reflect on how spaces, bodies, things, and feelings shape our mathematical thinking and enliven our understandings. It’s a curious playground, for sure.

At a pivotal moment in their inquiry, they recently joined renowned NYC subway dancer, Ikeem Jones (), on the E-train where he gave them all kinds of choreo-mathematical things to think about. And be in awe of. Check him out. In the first video, he’s doing what he does. In the second one, he’s enacting his interpretation of the 4-petal graph of r = sin 2θ.

Doctoral Student Publishes Third Time this Year

wiesea — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:58:28 +0000

This study highlights the pivotal role of questioning for eliciting different students’ forms of covariational reasoning in both mathematics education and interdisciplinary math and science education. Amanda and Nicole introduce an emerging framework of covariational reasoning orchestrations, which consist of two forms of synergies in their design: between artifacts (digital simulation, table, and graph), and between artifacts and questioning. This framework can help researchers and designers integrate the study of covariational reasoning into interdisciplinary STEM contexts.

We are so proud of you Amanda!

Doctoral Students and Faculty Present at RUME

wiesea — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:08:00 +0000

Five doctoral students and two faculty presented at the in Alexandria, VA.

From left: Emily Olson, Amy Daniel, and John O’Meara speak to audience members after their talk

Doctoral candidates John O’Meara and Amy Daniel, and doctoral student Emily Olson presented their work for the broader research team of doctoral student Toni Tork, John O’Meara, Amy Daniel, Emily Olson, Dr. Eileen Fernández, and Dr. Mika Munakata on Approaches to College Mathematics: Reimagining Remediation and Improving Student Outcomes in Precalculus. They drew a huge crowd that stayed long after their session to seek their advice on how to improve their own courses.

From left: Emily Olson, Amy Daniel, and John O’Meara

Doctoral students Asja Alić and Ariel Bonneau Rodriguez presented a poster with Dr. Greenstein: From the Polar to the Pole: The Enactive and Embodied Choreomathematics of the Polar Coordinate System (see feature image). It was a pivotal moment at RUME, as this poster attracted the masses. Attendees engaged with the tools, tasks, and embodied actions to conceptually explore polar graphing.

From left: Dr. Nina Bailey and Amy Daniel

Doctoral candidate, Amy Daniel, and Dr. Nina Bailey presented a brief report on Math anxiety data sources: Capturing individual differences through diverse lenses. Their work demonstrates that observations of student participation can supplement more conventional assessments to enable researchers to attend to the triggers and responses of students’ math anxiety.

Keep up the fabulous work Amy, Ariel, Asja, Emily, and John. We are so proud of you!

Doctoral students and faculty present at AMTE

wiesea — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 17:01:14 +0000

Doctoral Candidates, Amanda Provost and Helene Leonard, presented a session with Drs. Nicole Panorkou and Steven Greenstein on Responsive Professional Development for Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation: The Case of Balancing Acts. See feature image.

Doctoral candidate Amy Daniel presented a brief report with Dr. Nina Bailey: Learning About Preservice Teacher Math Anxiety: What Do Different Data Sources Offer Mathematics Teacher Educators? See below.

Doctoral student Asja Alić presented a poster with Dr. Nina Bailey and collaborator Dr. Karoline Smucker of Eastern Oregon University: Initiating Conversations to Integrate Critical Statistical Literacy Habits of Mind into Teacher Preparation Courses. See below.

Keep up the fabulous work Amanda, Amy, Asja, and Helene. We are so proud of you!

Doctoral students and faculty make contributions to research on systems thinking

wiesea — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:04:32 +0000

Doctoral students Amanda Provost and Gabriella Migliore, together with Dr. Nicole Panorkou, have published an open-access article in Education Sciences showcasing their research on students’ systems thinking. Their study titled presents a detailed framework of how students reason about the rock cycle, extending prior work by identifying specific sub-components. They also introduce an emerging framework for supporting systems thinking through thoughtfully designed simulations and questioning sequences. Together, these frameworks offer guidance for developing instructional modules aimed at strengthening students’ systems thinking in earth science contexts.

Second Annual Mathematics Education Panel Discussion

wiesea — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 21:02:53 +0000

Three members of our doctoral program recently joined Dr. DiNapoli’s Teaching Mathematics secondary math methods course for this year’s Mathematics Education Panel Discussion. The panelists – Christa Mawn, Gabriella Migliore, and Denis Cook – are experienced professionals in K-12 mathematics education who shared valuable insights about teaching, the job search process, supporting students, and finding balance in the profession. The students taking the math methods course led the conversation with thoughtful questions, making for a lively and inspiring exchange. Many thanks to our panelists for their time, expertise, and encouragement.

The photo captures our panelists together with several students from the class. Thank you, panelists, for your willingness to serve!

Doctoral Student presents at AMATYC

wiesea — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:52:24 +0000

John O’Meara, doctoral candidate in the PhD program in Mathematics Education, presented a talk with Dr. Mika Munakata at the in Reno, Nevada on November 13, 2025. Their talk, Bridging Gaps Between Two- and Four-Year Colleges: A Social Network Approach, shared research based on their work on the NSF-funded Noyce STEM-4-STEM program (Award #2150649) with Dr. Larkin, Department of Teaching and Learning.

Doctoral students receive internal grants

wiesea — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 20:31:48 +0000

Doctoral candidates Amy Daniel, Elise Lahiere, and Amanda Provost each recently received an internal grant award from Montclair’s Student-Led Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (RSCA) program. This RSCA funding will support each candidate’s dissertation research, providing funding for supplies, participant support, research tools, and more. These are incredibly competitive awards that require a rigorous application process. The doctoral program is so proud of Amy, Elise, and Amanda for their hard work and perseverance in earning these funds. Congrats to the faculty mentors, too, for all their hard work in this process – Dr. Mika Munakata (Amy), Dr. Joseph DiNapoli (Elise), Dr. Nicole Panorkou (Amanda). The next step? Completing the dissertation! Check out the provided photos for a peek into these projects. Check out all of the RSCA recipients!

Samples from Awardees

A sample task from Amanda’s work
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Shoebox Sleuth task by Elise Lahiere
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A snapshot from Amy’s pilot work on math anxiety
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Doctoral Student Presents at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics

wiesea — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:46:59 +0000

Asja Alić, presented a poster with Dr. Nina Bailey, and facilitated a discussion at the . Her poster, Using Critical Statistical Literacy Habits of Mind in an Introductory Data Science and Statistics Course for STEM majors, was highly visited. She also co-facilitated a lunch discussion on community and belonging.

The Department is proud of you Asja!

Doctoral Alumnus receives Outstanding Reviewer Award

wiesea — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:46:19 +0000

Mark Russo is an alumnus of the Mathematics Education Doctoral Program, a current adjunct for the Department of Mathematics, and District Supervisor of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Pascack Valley Regional High School District. Recently, Mark received an outstanding reviewer award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ journal MTLT. […]