Alan H. Schoenfeld

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Alan H. Schoenfeld

Alan Schoenfeld is the Elizabeth and Edward Conner Professor of Education and Affiliated Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and has served as President of AERA and vice President of the National Academy of Education.

Bio and Research Interests

Alan Schoenfeld’s research focuses on issues of thinking, teaching, and learning. His long-term goal has been to understand the nature of powerful learning environments and to support teachers in creating them.

Schoenfeld’s early work focused on developing theories of mathematical thinking and problem solving and factors that affect them, including metacognition, belief systems, and assessment. He then turned to modeling the decision-making process, with an emphasis on how and why teachers make the choices they do during instruction. This led to studies of robust learning environments and the creation of the Teaching for Robust Understanding Framework, his current research focus.

Selected Honors and Positions

President of the American Educational research Association, 1998; Vice President of the US National Academy of Education, 2001; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2001; Laureate of Kappa Delta Pi, 2006.

Felix Klein Medal for lifetime achievement, International Commission on Mathematics Instruction, 2011; Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award, American Educational Research Association, 2013; Mary P. Dolciani Award, Mathematical Association of America, 2014; Doctor of science honoris causa, Queens College of the City University of New York, 2018.

Selected Publications

Schoenfeld, A. H. (1985). Mathematical problem solving. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Burkhardt, H., & Schoenfeld, A. H. (2003). Improving educational research: toward a more useful, more influential, and better funded enterprise. Educational Researcher 32(9), 3-14.

Schoenfeld, A. H. (Ed.) (2007). Assessing mathematical proficiency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schoenfeld, A. H. (2010) How we think: A theory of goal-oriented decision making and its educational applications. New York: Routledge.

Schoenfeld, A. H. (2019). Reframing teacher knowledge: A research and development agenda. ZDM (52), 359–376.

Teaching for Robust Understanding Framework: https://truframework.org/