The Centre for Research in Mathematics Education (CeRME) includes academics, graduate students and practitioners engaged in a range of research and development projects related to mathematics education. We are part of Massey University’s Institute of Education.
CeRME brings together experts in mathematics education to work on a common theme: the place of mathematics education and its transformative potential in New Zealand, the Pacific region and the world. A focus on equity and cultural responsiveness underwrites our research projects and the developmental work we engage in with teachers, postgraduate students, and new researchers. Our strong tradition of collaboration with international and national researchers enables us to contribute to scholarly debates, in both the research and professional fields, in ways that are research-informed. Members of CeRME are engaged in a range of leadership roles at all levels and have received international recognition for their work.
CeRME’s core areas of interest and expertise are in the teaching and learning of mathematics across formal and informal contexts and in the professional education of teachers. Our work links up-to-date international literature with practice and uses a range of research methodologies to reflect the complexity of teaching and learning mathematics.
Research Themes
Our current research agenda has four interrelated themes and each research project addresses several.
Culture, language, and identity
Developing mathematical inquiry communities, we focus on meaning making, identity building, and striving towards equitable learning opportunities. Our research with Pasifika and Māori learners, in particular, works to enhance proficiency and participation in mathematics education.
The professional learning of teachers
We investigate a range of practice-based pedagogies and tools to support learning the work of ambitious teaching. Our key focus concerns professional noticing and the development of adaptive expertise.
Curriculum and assessment
We are interested in the design and implementation of group worthy tasks, funds of knowledge, and dynamic and comparative assessment practices. Early algebra is a specialist research strand. Our work supports the analysis of trends in national and international achievement and school practice data.
Cognition and affect
We are interested in the link between cognition and affect. Our key focus is in understanding and changing practices in the classroom in order to address students’ negative disposition towards, and lower performance in, mathematics.