SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Center for Urban Education
People
Margaret Schwan Smith
Professor and Senior Scientist
School of Education
University of Pittsburgh
5515 WWPH
230 South Bouquet St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-7361
412-648-7116
Profile
Margaret Schwan Smith is a Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Instruction and Learning at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. She also holds a joint appointment as Senior Scientist with the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC). Dr. Smith has taught mathematics at the junior high, high school and college levels.
She currently works with pre-service middle and high school mathematics teachers at the University of Pittsburgh, with doctoral students in mathematics education who are interested in becoming teacher educators, and with practicing middle and high school mathematics teachers and coaches through several funded projects. She was the coordinator of the QUASAR project between 1990 and 1997 where she focused primarily on supporting and studying the professional development of project teachers.
She is the coauthor of several books including Implementing Standards-Based Mathematics Instruction: A Casebook for Professional Development (Teachers College Press, 2000, 2009) that grew out of the work of the QUASAR Project. In addition, she has authored a book entitled Practice-Based Professional Development for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2001) which explores a particular type of professional development that connects the ongoing professional development of teachers to the actual work of teaching.
She is the lead author on three books of narrative cases recently published by Teachers College Press that grew out of the work of the NSF-funded COMET (Cases of Mathematics Instruction to Enhance Teaching) Project. Dr. Smith is currently the director of the NSF-funded CORP project that is focusing on developing curriculum for secondary mathematics teachers that focuses on reasoning and proving. In November 2005 she was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2006-2009). In 2006 she received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award given annually to honor outstanding faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2009 she received the award for Excellence in Teaching in Mathematics Teacher Education from the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators. She holds an EdD, in Mathematics Education from the University of Pittsburgh (1995), and an MS in Secondary Education Mathematics from the State University of New York (1980).