Community College Math Major Research team
Claire Wladis, Ph.D.
Claire Wladis, Ph.D., is the Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) Excellence Through Education Research Group, Professor of Mathematics at BMCC/CUNY and of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Their research focuses on a wide range of subfields in mathematics education and higher education, with a unifying focus on understanding how educational institutions may better center and adapt to the needs of the students who attend them. This includes research on how students think about core algebra concepts, how we can accurately measure this thinking, and how we can use this information to improve instruction; how our particular conceptualization and implementation of developmental and “college-level” mathematics courses may improve or worsen access to college and STEM degrees; how the availability of online courses may help or hinder degree progress for students; how time and energy as resources for college may impact academic and non-academic outcomes in college; how students successfully navigate existing higher education structures; and how culture, policies, and practices may enable or disable students from obtaining a college or STEM degree.
Contact: cwladis@bmcc.cuny.edu
Barry Cherkas
Jason F. Samuels, Ph.D.
Dr. Samuels has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Columbia University Teacher’s College. He is a professor of Mathematics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. His research interests focus on single variable calculus education, with a particular interest in developing and testing innovative curricula. He is currently co-PI on a $267,237 NSF grant to develop an evaluate a new hands-on collaborative curriculum for multi-variable calculus that integrates 3D surfaces into student-led discovery-based projects.
Contact: jsamuels@bmcc.cuny.edu
Kristin Amman, Ph.D.
Dr. Kristen Amman has a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Rutgers University. She is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She studies student perceptions of their learning experiences across the undergraduate mathematics curriculum, with a focus on math courses in the first two years of college. Her current work investigates how student perceptions of familiarity influence their learning of content they have seen before (relearning) in contexts such as College Algebra, Calculus courses, or mathematics content courses for future teachers.
