Athens, Ga. – Erik Jacobson, a doctoral candidate in mathematics education in the University of Georgia’s College of Education, has received a $20,000 dissertation award from the Grants Board of the American Educational Research Association.
Jacobson was recognized for his dissertation titled, “Professional Experience and the Development of Mathematical Proficiency for Teaching.” The awards are highly competitive and only 15 are awarded each year. Jacobson is the first student to receive the award in his department.
Jacobson’s dissertation employed secondary analysis of data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics and a longitudinal, mixed methods study with teachers in Georgia to identify factors that support elementary and middle grades mathematics teachers’ development of content knowledge and productive disposition for teaching. His major professor is Jeremy Kilpatrick, Regents Professor of mathematics education.
The grant is for the 2013 calendar year. Before graduation, it will support travel to present Jacobson’s dissertation work at the Second Annual Scholarship of STEM Teaching and Learning Conference hosted by Georgia Southern University in March and the annual conference of the American Education Research Association in April. After graduation, the grant will support work over the summer to write journal articles from his dissertation for publication and travel to the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education in November.
The AERA is an educational research organization that provides small grants and training for researchers who conduct studies of education policy and practice using quantitative methods and including the analysis of data from the large-scale data sets sponsored by National Center for Education Statistics and National Science Foundation.
Before graduate school, Jacobson taught high school courses in algebra, geometry, probability and statistics in Vermont. He holds a master’s degree in mathematics from UGA and a bachelor’s in mathematics from Dartmouth College.