Mohamed Ali Habib

Biography

Dr Mohammed Ali H Abdul Hussain holds a PhD from University of Leeds (UK) in one of the most contemporary reform approaches in mathematics teaching and learning, with a thesis in “Inquiry Communities in Primary Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Bahrain” (date). He also has an MSc in Functional Analysis (Pure Mathematics) from University of Bahrain (date) with a high distinction; thesis title: “Uniformly Dominated Sets in p-Summing Operators”. He also holds a BSc in Mathematics & Education (Mathematics as major and Education as minor). Dr Mohammed has published many papers in functional analysis (operator theory) and in mathematics teaching and learning, in high quality international journals (see below). He also have non-published papers in mathematics, such as Semi-Invariant Metric Spaces. He has presented papers at many international and national conferences. Dr Mohammed taught mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bahrain (part time) in 1991/92 and 1995/96. He also taught professional courses for many kindergarten teachers and subject teachers such as: assessment and evaluation, differentiation, developing thinking skills, strategic planning, and transformative classroom management. Between 2010 and 2011, he worked in School Improvement Teams to support schools in order to improve their practices in the light of Quality Assurance Agency standards.

Research Interest

r Mohammed’s current research interests follow a number of interrelated paths. The first is related to Functional Analysis and focuses on Operator Theory and p-Summing Operators. The second focuses on teaching and learning mathematical conceptual knowledge, including what he terms ‘spiral knowledge construction’ in order to understand the evolution of learner’s mathematical knowledge. This field proposes that learning mathematics is interconnected with extending learner’s meaning potential through learning to mean mathematically. This is based on a new developmental approach which introduces inquiry methods that transform mathematics teaching and learning. He proposes an ‘inquiry model’ for mathematics teaching and learning. The third considers the socio-cultural and other related empirical and theoretical traditions as the basis for studying mathematics classroom discourse in a wider sense. Dr Mohammed’s research interest in this area is based on his extension for Mortimer and Scott’s framework combined with Halliday’s theory which can be seen as a unique tool for analyzing and planning mathematical lessons. Related to this is the study of metacognition and the socio and socio-mathematical norms in mathematics classrooms and their effect on the quality of discourse. In addition, empirical findings in this area enabled him to characterize two contrasted teaching and learning paradigms, called ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ teaching and learning paradigms.