Notes on Contributors
Abraham Arcavi
is a faculty member in the Department of Science Teaching, Weizmann Institute of Science. He is engaged in the research and development of learning materials for students and teachers, as well as mathematics learning and teaching processes for secondary schools. He worked on a special project regarding mathematics education for elementary school that was the result of an evaluation project of the Chief Scientist combined with a fascinating partnership with Dr. Rina Hershkowitz.
Juhaina Awawdeh Shahbari
heads the mathematics education program at the Al-Qasemi: Academic College of Education. Her main area of research deals with cognitive processes in learning and teaching mathematical concepts and exploring processes involved in handling realistic and modeling activities. She has also researched various aspects of the professional development of teachers. She worked for several years as a pedagogical instructor for pre-service childhood teachers, the experience of which led to the rationale behind the research included in this book: an exploration of the weak points that pre-service teachers in an Arabic-speaking college have in mathematical-pedagogical knowledge.
Ruthi Barkai
is a faculty member at Kibbutzim College of Education and a researcher and lecturer at Tel Aviv University in the Department of Education in Math, Science and Technology. Her main areas of interest are mathematical and didactic aspects of proofs for mathematical arguments, mathematical thinking of young children (aged 3–6) and the professional development of pre- and inservice mathematics teachers. In recent years, she has focused, among other things, on comprehensive research in the field of mathematical thinking at young ages and the professional development of preschool teachers in the field.
Douglas H. Clements
is Distinguished University Professor and Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning at the University of Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. He has published over 146 refereed research studies, 26 books, 90 chapters, and 300 additional publications. on the learning and teaching of early mathematics; creating, using, and evaluating research-based curricula; and taking interventions to scale. He co-authored reports by the National Research Council on early mathematics, President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel, and Common Core State Standards.
Bat-Sheva Eylon
is a faculty member in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She directed the Agam Program since its inception and has been engaged in the research, development and operation of this program. She carries out research in the fields of learning and teaching physics, and the professional development of teachers and educational mentors for physics and science. She is developing and researching methodologies for cultivating thinking and creativity, including strategies based on embodiment theory. In 2015, she was awarded the EMET Prize for Science, Art and Culture for her contribution to education. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Dina Hassidov
is a faculty member of Talpiot Academic College, Department of Mathematical Education. Her main areas of interest are mathematical and didactic aspects of the understanding and use of mathematical symbols, mathematical thinking in young children (ages 3–6) and the professional development of pre-service mathematics teachers for preschool and up. In recent years, she has focused on the concept that the professional training of preschool teachers should take place in the preschool itself. She developed and led a national program to train and integrate professional mentors as to advance teaching mathematics in preschools. These mentor specialists have enhanced the professional mathematical knowledge of preschool teachers and, as a result, the preschoolers. This model has been implemented in many preschools around the country and accompanied by extensive research. An additional area of her research is the incorporation of advanced technologies in teaching and learning mathematics.
Dr. Hasidov worked in the Center for Educational Technology (CET-Matach) for many years and managed their operations in the northern district. She was involved in initiating educational programs and activities throughout the country, and integrating and implementing computers in education, especially in mathematics education. She was involved in developing curricula for schools, training teachers for mathematics and integrating them into the education system. She has served on inter-ministerial public committees in the field of education and employment that have led to decision-making processes and their implementation on a national scale. She also worked for the Open University, founding and managing their extended campus in Haifa, and has served as a scientific advisor for the Ministry of Education in a number of areas.
Rina Hershkowitz
is a member of the Mathematics Group in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science since its inception. With colleagues she moved from intensive activity of design, development and implementation, towards basic research on learning and teaching mechanisms within the learning topics of visualization, geometry, functions and probability. This led to a theoretical and methodological research concerning abstraction in context (AiC), research of socio-cognitive processes, like knowledge shifts, knowledge agents and collective creativity in the mathematics classroom.
Lea Ilani
trains and mentors preschool and elementary school mathematics teaching staff. She collaborates in writing study materials and in training teachers in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was a staff member of the Agam Program.
Bat-Sheva Ilany
has been involved in mathematics and mathematics education in teacher training colleges, the Open University, Mishbetzet Publishing, and more. She supervises Master and Ph.D. theses in Hemdat Hadarom College and Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has collaborated in the writing, development, consulting, and editing of study materials and books on a number of subjects intended for preschools, schools, and teacher training programs, among them: Developing Young Children’s Mathematical Thinking: Theory, Research and Practice in Teachers’ Training (MOFET, 2008; in Hebrew); Ratio and Proportion: Research and Teaching in Mathematics Teachers’ Education (Sense Publishers, 2012); and Change and Invariance: A Textbook on Algebraic Insight into Numbers and Shapes (Sense Publishers, 2016). In addition, Dr. Ilany has published math study materials, research papers, and books in Israel and around the world.
Candace Joswick
is a Research Project Director at Marsico Institute of Early Learning and James C. Kennedy Institute for Educational Success at the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education. In this role, she participates in various research projects and is focused on testing learning trajectories with children and developing teachers’ capacity to use learning trajectories as teaching and assessment tools. She previously worked as a middle and high school mathematics teacher, as an education faculty member at Ohio Dominican University, and as a researcher on numerous education projects at The Ohio State University. Joswick recently completed her dissertation titled “Investigating the Relationship between Classroom Discourse and Concept Development in Geometry Learning”. She has presented at numerous local, state, national, and international conferences on classroom interactions, learning progressions, teacher preparation and teacher knowledge, mathematics coaching, and non-native English speaking students’ mathematics classroom participation. She has also provided state-level professional development for elementary mathematics teachers and mathematics coaches.
Esther Levenson
is a senior lecturer and researcher at Tel Aviv University, Department of Education in Math, Science and Technology. Her main areas of interest are promoting mathematical creativity among students and teachers, the role that examples and explanations play in learning and teaching mathematics, and developing the mathematical thinking of young children (ages 3–6) and preschool teachers. In recent years, she has focused, among other things, on preschool mathematics and the professional development of preschool teachers.
Zvia Markovits
works in the field of early childhood and in elementary school mathematics. She is a member of the Faculty of Sciences at the Kibbutzim College of Education. Her research deals with teacher beliefs about mathematics, mathematics and gender, and number sense. She served as chairperson of the Israeli Ministry of Education’s committee that prepared the mathematics curriculum for preschool. She was a staff member of the Agam Program.
Zemira Mevarech
is Professor Emerita of Education at Bar Ilan University. She was Chief Scientist in the Ministry of Education. At Bar Ilan University, she served as Head of the School of Education, Vice Rector, and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Her research areas are the teaching of mathematics and meta-cognition. She has published dozens of studies in leading journals.
Joanne Mulligan
is Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Human Sciences Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She has conducted a range of research projects focused on early mathematics learning including the development of children’s representations, multiplicative reasoning, early algebraic thinking and spatial reasoning. She has conducted Australian Research Council funded projects: The Pattern and Structure Mathematics Awareness Project with children aged 4 to 8 years and Connecting mathematics learning through spatial reasoning with Grades 3 to 5.
Sherman Rosenfeld
works in the Department of Science Teaching at the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Center for Educational Technology (CET), and other institutions in Israel. He was a staff member of the Agam Program, since its inception. His areas of interest include the professional development of science and technology teachers, qualitative research, and Project-Based Learning (PBL) across all disciplines and age groups. He was the chairperson of the Israeli Ministry of Education’s pedagogical committee that prepared the guide, “Towards Developing a Culture of Inquiry in Schools”, published in 2017.
Flavia Santamaria
is Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics Teaching in Comahue National University, Argentina. She holds a Master degree in Science Teaching and a Teacher degree in Mathematics from Comahue National University. She is also a Primary School teacher. Her research and teaching activity deals with learning and teaching mathematics in primary and secondary education. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, with the study of the development of numerical knowledge and learning skills in first grade.
Julie Sarama
is Kennedy Endowed Chair in Innovative Learning Technologies and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Denver. She has taught high school mathematics, computer science, middle school gifted mathematics and early childhood mathematics. She directs projects funded by the NSF and IES and has authored over 77 refereed articles, 6 books, 55 chapters, and over 80 additional publications. Her interests include development of concepts and competencies, implementation and scale-up of interventions, and professional development models’ influence on student learning.
Nora Scheuer
is Principal Investigator at CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research), in Comahue National University, Argentina. She has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Geneva. She collaborates with researchers from several fields (education, mathematics, communication, linguistics, and biology) to study how children take up and make sense of notational practices and systems, and how this learning impacts on their thought and communication. These works have been published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese in various countries.
Amal Sharif-Rasslan
currently heads the Department of Mathematics in the Academic Arab College of Education, Haifa, where she focuses on teaching mathematics to students in advanced studies in scientific education. She has extensive experience teaching maths for preschool teachers at the Academic Arab College and at Oranim Academic College of Education.
Dr. Sharif-Rasslan has served as a member of the Ministry of Education committee for writing the math curriculum for grades 1–6, and as a member of the steering committee of the Israeli National Center for Elementary Teachers of Mathematics at the University of Haifa.
She is involved in and has published articles in a variety of fields of research, including: (1) elementary mathematics, elementary combinatorics, and proofs without words; (2) advanced mathematical thinking, the development of the number concept historically versus developmentally, and decision making among preschool children; (3) innovative digital pedagogy and the use of computerized models in teaching mathematics; and (4) developing mathematical models for medical studies in the field of cardiology.
Tal Sharir
is a Ph.D. student at Bar Ilan University and researches the tendency to focus spontaneously on mathematical structures (Recognition of Mathematical Structures-ROMS) in early childhood and elementary school age, and the impact of a metacognitive intervention program on the tendency to focus spontaneously on mathematical structures. She is an academic lecturer on the relationship between movement and learning and the impact of movement on learning skills. She manages the unit for dynamic regulation of unique regional schools in the R&D for Experiments and Initiatives Division in the Ministry of Education.
Dina Tirosh
is a faculty member of the Department of Math, Science and Technology Education at Tel Aviv University. Her main areas of interest are intuition and the concept of infinity and the intuitive rules theory. In recent years her main focus is on mathematical thinking in young children (3–6) and on the professional development of teachers in the field.
Pessia Tsamir
is a faculty member at the Department of Math, Science and Technology Education at Tel Aviv University. Her main areas of interest are intuition and the concept of infinity, the intuitive rules theory, and the use of errors in teaching and learning mathematics. One of her main focus of interest, in recent years, is mathematical thinking of young children (3–6) and the professional development of teachers in mathematics education.
Ana Clara Ventura
is Assistant Investigator at CONICET (National Council of Scientific and Technological Research) and Lead Teaching Assistant in the Psychology Department, in Comahue National University, Argentina. She is Managing Editor of Infancia y Aprendizaje/Journal for the Study of Education and Development. She has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Mar del Plata National University. Her research interests focus in learning and teaching processes in specific domains. She currently studies metacognitive development in early and middle childhood in the fields of number and writing.