Rate My Professor Tad Watanabe

Tad Watanabe is Professor of Mathematics Education and Associate Chair of the Department of Mathematics at Kennesaw State University, where he has served since June 2006, advancing from Associate Professor to full Professor in August 2011. His academic journey began with a B.A. in Mathematics from Taylor University in 1984, followed by an M.S. in Mathematics from Purdue University in 1986, and culminated in a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Florida State University in 1991, with a dissertation titled 'Coordination of units: An investigation of second grade children’s pre-rational number concepts.' Prior roles include Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University from 2002 to 2006, and at Towson University from 1998 to 2002 where he also served as Vice Chair from 2001 to 2002, Assistant Professor at Towson from 1992 to 1998, and earlier teaching positions at North Florida Junior College, Florida State University, and Purdue University.

Watanabe's scholarly work centers on mathematics teaching and learning, particularly Japanese instructional approaches, lesson study, and curriculum materials analysis. He was awarded the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2000 for research on elementary school teachers’ perspectives on mathematics teachers’ manuals. As principal investigator, he has secured grants including a National Science Foundation Small Grant for Exploratory Research ($30,918, 1998–1999), NSF Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant ($42,756, 1998–2000), and others totaling significant funding for projects on fraction instruction, performance standards, and teacher professional development. Key publications encompass co-authored books such as Navigating through Problem Solving and Reasoning in Grades 6–8 (NCTM, 2009), Navigating through Measurement in Grades 6–8 (NCTM, 2005), and Elementary School Teaching Guide for the Japanese Course of Study: Arithmetic (Grades 1–6) (2004); edited volumes including What Matters? Research Trends in International Comparative Studies in Mathematics Education (Springer, 2017); and refereed articles like 'Implementing school-wide Collaborative Lesson Research in Qatar' (Journal of Institutional Research South East Asia, 2019) and 'Japanese lesson study in the United States: Looking back and looking ahead' (Educational Designer, 2018).