MSU's Program in Mathematics Education (PRIME) is excited to welcome Dr. Jinfa Cai to our campus! Dr. Cai will be giving a colloquium on Monday, September 28, 2026, from 3:30-5:00pm.
If you are able to attend in person, the event will be held in Room B243 Wells Hall.
There is a Zoom option available: (https://msu.zoom.us/j/93669084156, passcode: PRIME
Abstract: There has been increased emphasis on integrating problem posing into curriculum and
instruction with the promise of potentially providing more and higher quality opportunities for
students to learn mathematics as they engage in problem-posing activities. In this presentation, I
will first provide a careful analysis of theoretical perspectives why P-PBL works for improving
students’ learning. Then I will provide empirical results to show not only the actual effects of PPBL on students’ learning, but also why the P-PBL instructional intervention can foster students’
learning of mathematics. I will end this presentation by discussing the future directions of
problem-posing research.
Bio: Bio: Dr. Jinfa Cai is a professor and the Curtis D. Robert Endowed Mathematics Education Chair at Texas A&M University. Before he joined TAMU in summer 2026, he was the Kathleen and David
Hollowell Professor at the University of Delaware. He is an elected member of the National
Academy of Education (NAEd) and a Fellow of American Educational Research Association
(AERA). He served as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education
as well as the Program Director at the USA National Science Foundation (NSF). In 2017, he
received the University of Delaware’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Scholarship
Award, which is historical for a mathematics education researcher to receive such a prestigious
award. In 2018, he received the Webber Award, honoring his significant contribution to the State
of Delaware’s mathematics education.
