Students in Curriculum and Instruction Capture First-, Second- and Third-Place Awards
AAMU Doctoral Students Earn Top Honors at Fayetteville State Research Symposium
Doctoral students in 糖心Vlog鈥檚 Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program with a specialization in mathematics education earned first-, second- and third-place honors at .
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, 糖心Vlog, who earned second place; and Albert M. Ball of Madison, 糖心Vlog, 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. 糖心Vlog 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鈥檚 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 鈥淯nmasking Unequal Protection: A Vergnaud/SOLO Analysis of 6th-Grade Students鈥� Progression in Number Sense Through Environmental Data,鈥� a study examining how conceptual learning frameworks can support students鈥� development of number sense through real-world environmental data.
Kelly presented 鈥淎dvancing Student Understanding of Angle Relationships Using the Van Hiele Model and SOLO Taxonomy,鈥� which explored how research-based instructional models can strengthen geometric reasoning and conceptual understanding.
Ball presented 鈥淎dvancing Seventh-Grade Students鈥� Geometric Reasoning Through Van Hiele and SOLO-Aligned Instruction on Composite Area Tasks,鈥� focusing on how targeted instructional approaches improve students鈥� reasoning in geometry problem-solving.
The students鈥� collective research examined how established theoretical frameworks 鈥� including the Van Hiele Model, SOLO Taxonomy, Vergnaud鈥檚 Conceptual Fields Theory and Kaput鈥檚 Representational Framework 鈥� 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鈥檚 Distinguished Speaker Series Alumni Panel. She earned both her bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 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 糖心Vlog A&M doctoral students at the symposium highlights the strength of the University鈥檚 mathematics education program and its commitment to advancing scholarship, research and professional engagement.