Patricia Moyer-Packenham is a Professor of Mathematics Education, specializing in
school mathematics for grades K-8. She received her PhD from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1997 with an emphasis on mathematics education. She received
her Masters in Education in 1988 from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and her
Bachelor of Science in K-8 Education from the Pennsylvania State University in 1983. Dr.
Moyer-Packenham was an elementary and middle school classroom teacher for 10 years in
Pennsylvania before moving into higher education.
Dr. Moyer-Packenham's research focuses on uses of mathematics representations and
tools (including virtual, physical, pictorial, and symbolic) and teacher development in
mathematics. She has over 60 publications, including a book titled What Principals Need
to Know about Teaching Mathematics, numerous journal articles on manipulatives and
virtual manipulatives, book chapters, refereed proceedings, and contributions to
mathematics methods textbooks. She is currently working on the development of a book
titled Teaching K-8 Mathematics with Virtual Manipulatives.
Moyer-Packenham serves as a Co-Principal Investigator on the 5-year NSF-Funded Math and
Science Partnership Program Evaluation (MSP-PE) with a total budget of $14.7 million
dollars (with Co-PIs, Robert Yin & Darnella Davis, COSMOS Corp., and Kenneth Wong,
Brown University). Her primary leadership and research inquiries on this project focus on
examining teacher quality, quantity and diversity in mathematics and science programs. In
addition to her research activity on the MSP-PE project, she has participated in national
assessment projects as a consultant for Horizon Research, Inc. on studies including
Inside the Classroom Project (funded by NSF), TE-MAT Teacher Materials Database Project
(funded by NSF), and the Mozaic Project (funded by the Rand Corporation). Moyer-Packenham
has been the Principal Investigator for eight mathematics teacher professional
development grants.
