Complexity and Uncertainty as Drivers for a Ph.D. In Mathematics Education and Science Education

Abstract

The Science and Mathematics Teaching Center (SMTC) at the University of Wyoming has been collaborating with the College of Education on revising the Ph.D. program for Mathematics Education and the Ph.D. program for Science Education. Currently the only option for graduate students is to pursue a college wide Ph.D. program in Education which requires a significant number of generalized education graduate courses (16–18 hours), advanced research methodology courses (12 hours), and the conventional independent research dissertation hours (16 hours). Upon closer inspection, such a large generalized core of courses leaves far too little room for innovative cognate sequences in mathematics or science content, focused mathe–matics and science education research, or apprenticeship experiences (we define a cognate to be a connected set of two to four courses with a common interrelated theme, for example cognition courses in mathematics and science education). In response, we are striving to create a novel Ph.D. program that integrates concepts of complexity and uncertainty in mathematics and science, integrated science and mathematics cognates, and apprenticeship experiences in content and mathematics and science education.KeywordsScience TeacherComplexity ScienceScience Education ResearchApprenticeship ExperienceDevelop Teacher EducatorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.