Students in Curriculum and Instruction Capture First-, Second- and Third-Place Awards

Doctoral students in Alabama A&M University’s Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program with a specialization in mathematics education earned first-, second- and third-place honors at Fayetteville State University’s 5th Annual Student Research Symposium.

The 2026 symposium marked the second consecutive year AAMU doctoral students participated in the annual event. Students competed in the Virtual Oral Presentation category while presenting classroom-based action research studies grounded in mathematics education theory and instructional practice.

Award recipients included Christina Lincoln-Moore of Inglewood, California, who earned first place; TaMarion L. Kelly of Madison, Alabama, who earned second place; and Albert M. Ball of Madison, Alabama, who earned third place.

Additional participating students included Jennifer M. Williams, Kiara R. Elike, Cearra A. Jones, Joshua Sawyer and Kelly Washington-Adams.

The symposium primarily featured students from Fayetteville State University, a historically Black university in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Alabama A&M students participated as invited guest scholars through the professional affiliation of faculty mentor Dr. Kimberly Burton, a part-time adjunct faculty member in AAMU’s mathematics education program.

Burton, who has taught in the program for the past two years, mentored students throughout the research and presentation process by guiding abstract submissions and helping refine presentations developed from coursework in graduate mathematics education courses.

Lincoln-Moore presented “Unmasking Unequal Protection: A Vergnaud/SOLO Analysis of 6th-Grade Students’ Progression in Number Sense Through Environmental Data,” a study examining how conceptual learning frameworks can support students’ development of number sense through real-world environmental data.

Kelly presented “Advancing Student Understanding of Angle Relationships Using the Van Hiele Model and SOLO Taxonomy,” which explored how research-based instructional models can strengthen geometric reasoning and conceptual understanding.

Ball presented “Advancing Seventh-Grade Students’ Geometric Reasoning Through Van Hiele and SOLO-Aligned Instruction on Composite Area Tasks,” focusing on how targeted instructional approaches improve students’ reasoning in geometry problem-solving.

The students’ collective research examined how established theoretical frameworks — including the Van Hiele Model, SOLO Taxonomy, Vergnaud’s Conceptual Fields Theory and Kaput’s Representational Framework — support conceptual understanding in K-12 mathematics classrooms. Their findings showed that cognitively demanding, research-based instructional tasks can strengthen mathematical reasoning, problem-solving and academic communication skills among diverse learners.

Williams also participated in the symposium’s Distinguished Speaker Series Alumni Panel. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fayetteville State University. Sawyer attended the symposium in person, further demonstrating his scholarly engagement.

This marked the second consecutive year AAMU doctoral students participated in the symposium. During the 2025 event, doctoral students Cearra A. Jones and Joshua Sawyer presented research conducted in a geometric thinking course. Sawyer earned second place in the Virtual Oral Presentation category.

The continued success of Alabama A&M doctoral students at the symposium highlights the strength of the University’s mathematics education program and its commitment to advancing scholarship, research and professional engagement.