Nathan uses experimental design and video based discourse analysis methods to study learning and teaching in school settings.
His research investigates the role of prior knowledge and invented strategies in the development of algebraic thinking, the notion of Expert Blind Spot [1] to explain teachers' instructional decision making, and how teachers use gestures, embodiment and objects to convey abstract ideas during instruction.
He is principal researcher for the STAAR project (Supporting the Transition from Arithmetic to Algebraic Reasoning) funded through the IERI program by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Educational Sciences, and National Institutes of Health-NICHD), and has secured over $10 million in research funds as a PI or co-PI.
Teachers' gestures as a means of scaffolding students' understanding: Evidence from an early algebra lesson.
Pattern generalization with graphs and words: A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of middle school students’ representational fluency.
A framework for understanding and cultivating the transition from arithmetic to algebraic reasoning.
Reframing the role of Boolean classes in qualitative research from an embodied cognition perspective.
Proceedings of the International Conference on the Learning Sciences (pp. 502–508).
A study of whole classroom mathematical discourse and teacher change.
The symbol precedence view of mathematical development: A corpus analysis of the rhetorical structure of algebra textbooks.
An investigation of teachers’ beliefs of students’ algebra development.
Moving beyond teachers' intuitive beliefs about algebra learning.
The Jasper Project: Lessons in Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Professional Development.
Nathan, M. J., Bransford, J. D., Brophy, S., Garrison, S., Goldman, S. R., Kantor, R. J., Vye, N., J., & Williams, S. (1994).
Multimedia journal articles: Promises, pitfalls and recommendations.
Educational Media International, 31, 265-273 Tabachneck, H. T., Koedinger, K., & Nathan, M. J.
Toward a theoretical account of strategy use and sense-making in mathematics problem solving.
Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 836–841).
A theory of algebra word problem comprehension and its implications for the design of computer learning environments.