David Landy

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a $1.12 million grant to David Landy, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Richmond, for a three-year study of approaches to teaching algebra.  

DOE’s Cognition and Student Learning section of the Institute of Education Sciences funded Landy’s project, “Learning the Visual Structure of Algebra through Dynamic Interactions with Notation.” Landy has taught at Richmond since 2009, and his work on the topic has been motivated by research in cognitive psychology.

The project’s goal is to explore and develop existing iPad applications that allow users to interact with expressions — literally picking up and moving pieces of algebraic expressions in ways that match the formal rules of algebra. 

Theories suggest that successful algebraic reasoning often involves not only applying rules or concepts, but also imagining moving and transforming pieces of mathematical expressions. If correct, then literacy in algebra involves learning what the parts of an expression are and how those parts can be changed. The research also will include paper-and-pencil exercises, bridging the electronic expressions to traditional written algebra. 

Landy plans to create interactive software for student use. He and collaborator Robert Goldstone, a professor at Indiana University, will work with Richmond undergraduates and several groups of ninth-grade algebra students and their teacher in Bloomington, Ind., seeking ways that learning outcomes can be improved. 

The overall project cost is $1,142,795. University of Richmond will contribute about $25,000, or about 2 percent, when Landy takes a research leave in 2013–14. The federal grant will pay $1,117,614 — the remaining 98 percent of project costs.