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My research is in the area of teaching and learning mathematics through problem solving and problem posing. I am interested in a variety of instructional contexts, from middle school to university. Part of my research is devoted to exploring the mechanisms of problem solving and problem posing in choice-affluent learning environments, such as a dialogical mathematics classroom or an online problem-solving forum. Another part of my research focuses on exploring the potential of teacher-researcher partnerships for jointly investigating teaching and learning mathematics through problem solving.

For potential students and postdocs

M.Sc., Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies in my research group have the following characteristics:

  • A pedagogically challenging goal is pursued. Examples are: to enrich students’ heuristic arsenals, enhance flexibility in problem solving, design classroom situations in which students ask meaningful questions, design and explore aha-situations or wow-situations.
  • Mathematical content is always in the center.
  • The studies frequently employ iterative task design that occurs during a relatively long experimentation period.
  • There is no an a-priori commitment to a particular educational theory, but there is a theoretically informed search for “what works”.  
  • The possibility to formulate non-trivial implications for teaching and learning mathematics serves as an important success criterion.

Consider joining the research group as a M.Sc., Ph.D. or a postdoc.

Prior to applying via email please check the webpage of the Feinberg Graduate School for details of the application procedure.   

Bio

Boris Koichu was born in Ukraine in 1967. He received his M.Sc. in Mathematics at the Lviv State University in 1991 and worked as a high-school teacher for eight years in his native school. He repatriated to Israel in 1998 and received his Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, in 2004. Following two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of California, San Diego, he came back to the Technion as a faculty member in 2006. He moved to the Weizmann Institute of Science in March 2017 and is currently an Associate Professor and the Head of the Mathematics Group of the Department of Science Teaching.

Prof. Koichu is an editorial board member of Journal of Mathematical Behavior, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, and Alon LeMorej HaMatematika (Bulletin for Mathematics Teachers). In addition, he is a member of the Education Committee of the European Mathematical Society, and serves on the Superior Committee of the Ministry of Education for mathematics instruction in elementary school.

Since 1989, Boris is married to Olga, who is a QA engineer. They have three children, Michael, Julia and Dalia. Last but not least, Boris likes jogging and playing tennis and enjoys listening to audiobooks in Russian and Ukrainian while driving from Haifa where he lives to Rehovot where he works.