Students in the SMT Specialization are expected to obtain a broad background that enables them to relate issues in science, mathematics, and technology education to one another and then to specialize in one of these areas or in some particular interdisciplinary specialty. Technology in Education includes both the use of technology, especially new computer-based information and communication technologies, for educational purposes and also education of students about technology in society and its relations to science and mathematics.

Each semester students will take one or two Area Seminars in SMT and, under the guidance of an adviser and a Studies Committee, will complement these with other electives and guided independent study courses. With approval, it is possible to take graduate courses in the natural sciences, mathematics, and computer science, or in instructional technology, as part of an SMT studies specialization.

Area Seminars in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (3 credits each semester)

This seminar provides opportunity for discussion of contemporary research issues in the fields of mathematics, science, and technology in education. Each semester one or two special topics will be selected as the focus of the work of the seminar. Prospective topics include:

• Urban systemic reform initiatives and new curriculum standards
• Improving quantitative and mathematical modes of reasoning
• The role of language and visual and mathematical representations in SMT education
• Critical use of new information and communication technologies
• Alternative approaches to the assessment of learning in SMT education
• Integration of mathematical and scientific literacy within the total school curriculum
• Research on constructivism and conceptual change in SMT education
• HPS, SST, and the new social studies of science, mathematics, and technology
• The role of student identity and community attitudes in SMT learning

SMT Research Focus Areas

Teacher Preparation and Student Achievement

Preparation of teachers for K-12 SMT education; implications of new curriculum standards and higher expectations for student achievement; partnerships and collaboration between schools and universities; integrating SMT education with learning in other subject areas.

How can university SMT departments and programs in education most effectively collaborate in the preparation of teachers for K-12 SMT education?

How can we promote effective forms of curriculum articulation and partnerships in SMT education along the urban-education K-16 continuum (e.g., school-to-college transition; university, school, community, and corporate partnerships; comparisons of secondary school and adult education programs and innovations)?

What are the most effective approaches in SMT teaching and curriculum, and the preparation of teachers of SMT education, needed to increase student achievement across the full spectrum of culturally diverse urban populations and to implement systemic reform?

How can we effectively integrate SMT education with learning in other subject areas (e.g., science with writing and language arts, mathematics with arts and social studies education)?

New Technologies for Science and Mathematics Education

Opportunities and challenges of new information technologies for the teaching and learning of science and mathematics, and the preparation and development of teachers in SMT education; evaluating critiques of technology in science and mathematics education; educational relevance of changing relations of science, mathematics, technology, and society in historical and contemporary perspective; policy issues in the use of new information technologies in K-16 education.