About
Professor Lianghuo Fan is Emeritus Professor in Education at the University of Southampton and has a long career as a mathematics educator in China, USA, Singapore and the UK. His research has focused on mathematics teaching and learning, mathematics assessment, teacher education and professional development, mathematics curriculum and textbook research, and the integration of ICT in mathematics education. He is also interested in international and comparative education, and algorithms for polynomial division in mathematics. Among his many publications in these areas, his work in mathematics textbook research, teacher pedagogical knowledge development, comparison between Chinese and international mathematics education, and synthetic and polynomial division has been particularly influential in China and internationally.
Professor Lianghuo Fan was a Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences and the Director for the Asian Centre for Mathematics Education at East China Normal University from 2018-2024. He is currently a Chair Professor and the Dean of the Faculty of Education, as well as a University Council member, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China.
Research
Research interests
- Teacher education and professional development in mathematics
- Curriculum studies and textbook research in mathematics
- Mathematics teaching, learning and assessment
- International and comparative education in mathematics
- Computer algebra (particularly in algorithm for polynomial division)
Current research
Prof Fan’s current research focuses are threefold: (1) Integration of ICT (including Artificial Intelligence) into mathematics education, (2) Mathematics teachers’ professional development, and (3) Influences of cultural and social contexts on mathematics education in different educational settings. He is leading a large R & D team on the designing, development and use of digital mathematics textbooks and investigating their impact on the teaching and learning of mathematics at secondary school levels. In the field of teacher education and professional development, his current work focuses on how to improve the effectiveness of organized professional development activities for in-service mathematics teachers. Prof Fan is also keen to examine issues about mathematics education, particularly the differences in beliefs, behaviours and performances in relation to mathematics curriculum, teaching and learning, from a social and cultural perspective.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Prof Fan has taught a wide range of university modules in teacher education, educational research and mathematics education, including Teaching and Learning Mathematics for Elementary and Secondary Schools, Theories for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, Research Methods in Education, Issues and Methods in Mathematics Education, Globalisation and Education Policy, Research Design and Statistical Analysis, Mathematics Assessment, etc. His teaching focus over the last few years has been on theories, issues and methods of research in mathematics education at advanced level.
Working with his Southampton Education School colleagues and in collaboration with Macmillan Education, Prof Fan led the designing and delivery of a series of MOOC courses about Asian mathematics teaching theories and approaches, consisting of (1) World Class Maths: Asian Teaching Methods and (2) World Class Maths: Asian Teaching Practice, which have been taken by over 25,000 participants from more than 130 countries/regions through FutureLearn online platform.
Prof Fan has also supervised four postdoctoral research fellows, more than a dozen doctoral students and over 60 master’s students to their completion in the field of mathematics education.
Biography
Prof Lianghuo Fan went to university at age 15 and completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Ningbo Normal College, now Ningbo University, Ningbo, China in 1981. He obtained his MSc as well as Postgraduate Certificate in mathematics education and mathematical history at East China Normal University, Shanghai in 1989, and his PhD in education at the University of Chicago, USA in 1998. He also received a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from SIM University, now Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore in 2003.
Since 1981, Professor Fan had been a mathematics teacher, a mathematics and science department head in three high schools in his hometown, Ningbo, and later a teacher educator as a lecturer at Zhejiang Institute of Education, now Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou, China, for about ten years. Since 1998, Professor Fan was on the faculty of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore until 2010, in which he joined the University of Southampton as Chair in Education. In 2018, he was appointed Distinguished Professor and Director for the Asian Centre for Mathematics Education at East China Normal University. In 2024, he joined the University of Macau as Dean and Chair Professor in its Faculty of Education; currently he also serves as a member of the University Council, University of Macau.
Professor Fan has extensive international experience in education, research and publication in the field of mathematics education. He was chief editor of The Mathematics Educator (2006-2010) and is currently on the editorial or advisory boards of about ten research journals published in Australia, China, Singapore, Sweden, UK, etc. He was on the development team of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP), a consultant for both primary and secondary mathematics textbooks published by Shinglee Publishers, editor-in-chief for the series of secondary mathematics textbooks by Multimedia Publications in Singapore, and has been editor-in-chief for the series of secondary mathematics textbooks published by Zhejiang Education Publishing House, China since 2001. As the IPC Chair, Prof Fan conceived and organised the inaugural International Conference on Mathematics Textbook Research and Development (ICMT) held in the UK, 2014; he continued to serve as the Co-Chair of IPCs for ICMT-2 held in Brazil, 2017, ICMT-3 held in Germany, 2019, and ICMT-4 held in Beijing, 2022.
Professor Fan has also served in different roles such as international consultant/advisor and external examiner/referee to universities, governments and non-governmental organizations in many countries/regions including Croatia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands, UK and most frequently, Chinese mainland.
Professor Fan is Vice President and Secretary General of the Chinese Society of Mathematics Education. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Asian Journal for Mathematics Education, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education and Chief Editor of Frontiers in Education (STEM Education). Prof Fan was elected in 2022 as President of Shanghai Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association.