On October 10-12, 2012, Alan Schoenfeld from the University of California at Berkeley visited Umeå Mathematics Education Research Centre (UMERC). During his visit, he participated in different seminars and worked together with members of UMERC.
Alan Schoenfeld is the Elizabeth and Edward Conner Professor of Education and Affiliated Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Educational Research Association, and a Laureate of the education honor society Kappa Delta Pi. Schoenfeld has served as President of the American Educational Research Association and vice president of the National Academy of Education. In 2008 he was given the Senior Scholar Award by AERA’s Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education. In 2011 he was awarded the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction’s Klein Medal, the highest international distinction in mathematics education.
Soon after obtaining his Ph.D. in mathematics from Stanford, Schoenfeld turned his attention to issues of mathematical thinking, teaching, and learning. His work has focused on problem solving (what makes people good problem solvers, and how can people get better at it?), assessment, teachers’ decision-making, and issues of equity and diversity, with the goal of making meaningful mathematics truly accessible to all students. His current work focuses on understanding teaching practices in powerful mathematics classrooms.
Alan has written, edited, or co-edited more than two hundred pieces on thinking and learning, including twenty-two books. His most recent book, How we Think, provides detailed models of human decision making in complex situations such as teaching.
