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Sunghwan Byun

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education

he/him

502F Poe Hall

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Bio

Sunghwan researches discourse and social interaction for teaching and learning mathematics, statistics, and data science. He is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of STEM Education at NC State and is the Director of Educational Research in the NC State Data Science Academy. Prior to his academic career, he was a high school mathematics teacher and a National Board Certified Teacher. His current projects aim to enhance undergraduate data science and statistics instruction, and support instructors in facilitating productive and equitable learning opportunities for students with historically marginalized backgrounds.

  • Doctoral Program Concentration: Mathematics & Statistics Education
  • Master’s Concentration: Mathematics Education
  • Undergraduate: Mathematics Education – Middle School or Secondary

Education

Ph.D. Mathematics Education Michigan State University 2021

M.S. Statistics Michigan State University 2020

M.S. Mathematics Education Oregon State University 2008

B.S. Mathematics Education Kyungpook National University 2007

Area(s) of Expertise

Discourse
Classroom Research
Equity & Diversity
Mathematics & Statistics Education
Qualitative Research
Teacher Education & Professional Development

Publications

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Grants

Date: 08/01/23 - 7/31/26
Amount: $459,848.00
Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF)

In this Level I early stage Design and Development study on Teaching, using design-based research, we aim to design, implement, investigate, and iteratively refine a video-based coaching model to develop mathematics teachers??? responsive pedagogies for linguistically marginalized students. Building from cutting edge research on linguistically responsive mathematics pedagogies (Adler, 2021; de Araujo & Smith, 2021; Marshall et al., in press; Song & Coppersmith, 2020), this project addresses the persistent need to foster mathematics teachers??? learning about supporting linguistically marginalized students (Lucas & Villegas, 2010; Prediger, 2019). Our novel model centers the experiences of students through video clips as rich tools for teacher learning. Our approach builds from key findings from our small prior study: that video-based coaching can support teachers in learning justice-oriented pedagogies such as social justice mathematics (Marshall, 2022) and learning to disrupt racialized patterns of exclusion in mathematics classrooms (Marshall, 2020) by supporting teachers??? sensemaking about their own students??? unique experiences in mathematics classrooms and giving timely, formative feedback as teachers encounter problems of practice (Horn et al., 2022). Central to our model is this core insight: that classroom video holds potential for supporting teacher learning of responsive pedagogies because of its opening of a window into students??? experiences, proximity to practice, context-embeddedness, and affordances for troubleshooting such pedagogies soon after teachers try them in their classrooms. The scholars collaborating to lead this project have strong histories of work designing and investigating professional development for educational equity, and complementary expertise to build a powerful and scalable model for mathematics teachers learning of responsive pedagogies. Our overarching research question is: How do secondary mathematics teachers learn about supporting linguistically marginalized students? The primary outcomes of this research include: a portrait of the challenges and opportunities that mathematics teachers face in supporting linguistically marginalized students, an iteratively refined model of professional development for teachers??? learning of responsive pedagogies, and an empirically-grounded theory of teachers??? learning to support linguistically marginalized students.

Date: 07/15/23 - 6/30/26
Amount: $275,484.00
Funding Agencies: National Science Foundation (NSF)

The following proposal, Modules for Statistics Graduate Teaching Assistants Learning to Teach Equitably with Authentic Data (GTAs-LEAD), is submitted for consideration as a Level 1, Track 1: Engaged Student Learning proposal seeking to develop, implement, and research evidenced-based professional development modules for statistics graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). Developing data acumen is necessary for every citizen to harness the data revolution in their workplaces and everyday lives (NASEM, 2018). There have been longstanding recommendations to reform introductory statistics courses to address the growing need for expanding opportunities to investigate authentic data (GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee, 2016; Ridgway, 2016). Despite the numerous efforts to develop curricular resources to bring authentic data investigation into introductory statistics classrooms, the instruction often focuses on procedural aspects of statistical skills. Moreover, in large universities, such as North Carolina State University (NCSU) and Michigan State University (MSU), the responsibility of leading these active learning opportunities often falls on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who may not have any formal education in teaching (Justice et al., 2017). Without discipline-specific professional development for statistics GTAs, innovative curricular resources are unlikely to reach the fruition of equitable learning outcomes of developing data acumen. The GTAs-LEAD project will address this urgent need to facilitate teacher learning of statistics GTAs. The project team hypothesizes that with carefully organized discipline-specific teacher learning modules, statistics GTAs can learn to teach equitably with authentic data while working with their GTA communities. Guided by a design and development research approach, the GTAs-LEAD project will: (1) design a set of four research-informed modules for statistics GTAs learning to teach equitably with authentic data (LEAD Modules), (2) implement LEAD Modules with two GTA communities teaching introductory statistics courses at NCSU and MSU, and (3) further refine LEAD Modules based on design-based research that examines GTA development and their communities. By drawing on the interdisciplinary expertise of the PI team, the GTAs-LEAD project infuses knowledge bases and resources from statistics education and mathematics teacher education to support statistics GTAs learning to teach equitably with authentic data.


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