Berkaliev Investigates Mathematics Education in Two NSF-Funded Studies
Zaur Berkaliev, assistant professor of mathematics education, has roles in two research projects funded by the National Science Foundation for $545,000 to help develop better approaches to mathematics education.
He is principal investigator on a two-year, $366,227 project, "Pre-K Early Algebra though Quantitative Reasoning," with Barbara Dougherty, professor in curriculum and instruction and director of the Center for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, Iowa State University.
Berkaliev, Dougherty, and their teams of researchers and developers are creating an innovative approach to pre-K students' development of quantitative reasoning through measurement based on the pre-numeric instruction in the Elkonin-Davydov elementary mathematics curriculum from Russia. Researchers are adapting the E-D approach for use with four-year-olds, working in collaboration with the experts in Russia who developed E-D.
Berkaliev also will lead part of the "Measurement Approach to Rational Numbers (MARN) Project" as a subcontract PI for Martin Simon, professor of mathematics education at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, in collaboration with Dougherty. His part is a five-year, $179,779 project.
The MARN project is designing, developing, and testing an innovative approach to elementary students' learning in the critical areas of multiplicative reasoning, fractions, and proportional reasoning. The project team is building on the E-D curriculum to develop a curriculum framework that can be implemented in U. S. schools.
Berkaliev worked on an earlier (2001-2002) project that focused on the E-D curriculum model for elementary mathematics education. His research interests in mathematics education are grounded in his international background and his doctorates in mathematics from Lomonosov Moscow State University and mathematics education from Indiana University in Bloomington. His scholarship brings together Russian and American scholarly perspectives and cultural traditions in math educational research and practices, and helps to bridge the work of mathematicians and K-12 mathematics educators.
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