Faculty Research Overview
>> Friel, Susan
Susan Friel has several areas of interest that are informed by her research and scholarship: curriculum development, development of students’ statistical knowledge, professional development of teachers including a self-study of her own practice and early childhood mathematics education. Her work in curriculum development is linked to a methodology characterized as developmental research. Her interest in students’ statistical understanding grew out of her work in curriculum development.
Friel’s research into professional development and self-study reflect her ongoing and long-term involvement in exploring what it means to teach and learn mathematics. Her more recent research in early childhood mathematics education has been motivated by her curriculum development work in middle grades mathematics. Observing mathematics foundational to solid elementary preparation that students in grades 6–8 apparently did not know, she explores how students in grades K-2 come to understand mathematics.