Professor Lianghuo Fan is a Chair Professor of Education and the Dean in the Faculty of Education, University of Macau. He had his basic school education in his hometown, Xiangshan, Zhejiang, China. He went to university at age 15 and completed his undergraduate studies in mathematics at Ningbo Normal College (now Ningbo University), 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 2006.

Since 1981, Professor Fan had been a mathematics teacher, a mathematics and science department head in three high schools in his hometown, and later a teacher educator as a lecturer at Zhejiang Institute of Education (now Zhejiang International Studies University), Hangzhou, China, for about ten years. From 1998 to 2010, he taught at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2010, he accepted an appointment as Chair in Education at Southampton Education School, University of Southampton, where he also served as the Head of Mathematics and Science Education Research Centre. In 2018, he relocated to Shanghai for family reason and became a Distinguished Professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences and Director for the Asian Centre for Mathematics Education, East China Normal University. As a recognition of Prof. Fan’s service and contribution, the University of Southampton awarded him a visiting professorship in 2018 until 2022 and then an Emeritus Professorship in 2022. Prof. Fan joined the University of Macau in June 2024.

Prof. Fan has a broad and interdisciplinary interest in research areas, including mathematics teaching and learning, mathematics assessment, teacher education and professional development, mathematics curriculum and textbook research, and the integration of ICT (including AI) in mathematics education. He is also interested in international and comparative education, with a focus on examining the influences of cultural and social contexts in different educational settings. He also keeps an interest in algorithms for polynomial division in mathematics and its application in various areas of mathematics and computation.

Among Prof. Fan’s over 200 academic publications, his work in mathematics textbook research, teacher professional development, comparison between Chinese and international mathematics education, and synthetic and polynomial division has been particularly influential in China and internationally. Some of his most recognized achievements included (1) in the field of teacher professional development, his book in Chinese entitled 《教師教學知識發展研究》(A study on teachers’ development of pedagogical knowledge) was cited more than 1700 times (Source: CNKI) and regarded as the most influential work in this area in China, and his book in English entitled Investigating the Pedagogy of Mathematics: How Do Teachers Develop Their Pedagogical Knowledge was commended as “A great contribution to the mathematics teacher education scholarship” (Lawrence, 2016); (2) in the field of textbook research and development, 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, and he continued to serve as Co-Chair of IPCs for ICMT-2, ICMT-3, and ICMT-4; he has also served since 1993 as editor and, most times, Editor-in-Chief and leading author for school mathematics textbooks and curricular resources in the USA, Singapore, UK and China; (3) in the field of Chinese and international mathematics education, he was lead editor of How Chinese Learn Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders and How Chinese Teach Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders, which were acclaimed as “milestones” of study internationally on Chinese mathematics education; and (4) in classical mathematics, Prof. Fan generalized the classical synthetic division and hence established a new and general theorem of polynomial division; his work is currently listed by “Semantic Scholar” as one of ten important papers about synthetic division for the last 70 years, and as the main or sole reference for synthetic division in the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” and the largest online mathematics resources “Wolfram MathWorld”.

Many of Prof. Fan’s scholarly works and school textbooks can be found online at Amazon in English and at Dangdang in both Chinese and English.

Prof. 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, Switzerland, the Netherlands, UK and most frequently, Chinese mainland.

• PhD in Education, University of Chicago, USA, 1998
• MSc in Mathematics Education, East China Normal University, China, 1989
• Graduate Diploma in Business Administration, SIM University (now Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore, 2006 (part-time)
• Diploma in Mathematics, Ningbo Normal College (now Ningbo University), China, 1981

• Emeritus Professor in Education, Southampton Education School, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK (September 2022-present)
• President, Shanghai Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Association, China (September 2022-present)
• Founding Secretary General & Vice President, Chinese Society of Mathematics Education (July 2021-present)

• 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
• ICT (including AI) and mathematics education
• Computer algebra (particularly in algorithm for polynomial division)

Books

• Atweh, B., Fan, L., & Vistro-Yu, C. (Eds.). (2023). Research in Mathematics Education in Asia: Mapping the Field. Springer, 192 pages.
• Fan, L., Trouche, L., Qi, C., Rezat, S., & Visnovska, J. (Eds.). (2018). Research on Mathematics Textbooks and Teachers’ Resources: Advances and Issues. Springer, 377 pages.
• Fan, L., Wong, N. Y., Cai, J., & Li, S. (Eds.). (2015). How Chinese Teach Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders. World Scientific, 756 pages.
• Fan, L. (2014). Investigating the Pedagogy of Mathematics: How Do Teachers Develop Their Knowledge? Imperial College Press, 368 pages.
• Fan, L. (2013). A Study on the Development of Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge (2nd edition; 1st edition published in 2003). East China Normal University Press, 301 pages. [范良火 (2013). 《教師教學知識發展研究》(第二版). 上海：華東師範大學出版社，301頁 (第一版於2003年出版)].
• Fan, L. (Ed.). (2011). Performance Assessment in Mathematics: Concepts, Methods, and Examples from Research and Practice in Singapore Classrooms. Pearson, 144 pages.
• Fan, L., Wong, N. Y., Cai, J., & Li, S. (Eds.). (2004). How Chinese Learn Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders. World Scientific, 592 pages.

Journal Articles

• Li, S., & Fan, L. (2024). Using social network analysis to investigate mathematical connections in U.S. and Chinese textbook problems. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02991-w
• Thurm, D., Li, S., Barzel, B., Fan, L., & Li, N. (2024). Professional development for teaching mathematics with technology: A comparative study of facilitators’ beliefs and practices in China and Germany. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 115(2), 247-269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-023-10284-3
• Jin, M., Li, N., & Fan, L. (2024). The impact of digital curriculum resources on students’ mathematics learning: The case of teaching “graphs and properties of quadratic functions”. Journal of Mathematics Education, 33(3), 34-39. [金敏，李娜，范良火 (2024). 數字課程資源對學生數學學習的影響——以“二次函數的圖像和性質”為例[J]. 數學教育學報, 2024, 33(3), 34−39]
• Fan, L., Xie, S., Luo, L., Li, L., Tang, J., & Li, S. (2023). Teachers’ perceptions of less successfully organized professional development practices in mathematics: A study of nine secondary schools in Shanghai, China. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 26(5), 667–697. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-023-09591-6
• Fan L., Li, L., Chen, Q., & Li, N. (2023). How is educational gamification represented in school curriculum? An investigation of Chinese secondary mathematics textbooks. Sustainability (Special Issue: Sustainability in Educational Gamification), 15(4), Article3830. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043830
• Li, S., Li, S., & Fan, L. (2023). Should calculators be allowed to use in college entrance examinations in mathematics: An international comparison of 30 countries and regions’ calculator use policies and practices in college entrance examinations. Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), 41(4), 83-92. [李淑惠, 李上, 范良火 (2023). 我國高考數學應該引入計算器嗎？——基於對30個國家和地區高考政策和實踐的調查及思考[J]. 華東師範大學學報 (教育科學版), 41(4), 83-92.] https://doi.org/:10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2023.04.007
• Li, S., & Fan, L. (2023). How mathematical connections are represented in China and US mathematics textbooks? A comparative study focusing on conic sections. Global Education, 52(6), 62-77. [李淑惠,范良火 (2023).中美數學教材如何反映數學聯結?——一項聚焦於圓錐曲線內容的比較研究[J]. 全球教育展望, 52(6), 62-77.]
• Wang, Y., & Fan, L. (2023), Analysis on Mathematical application characteristics of high school mathematics textbooks from the perspective of context. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 43(5), 109-116. [王一粟, 范良火 (2023). 從情境視角分析我國最新高中數學教科書的數學應用特徵[J]. 課程.教材.教法, 43(5), 109-116.]
• Fan, L., Luo, J., Xie, S., Zhu, F., & Li, S. (2022). Chinese students’ access, use and perceptions of ICTs in learning mathematics: findings from an investigation of Shanghai secondary schools. ZDM–Mathematics Education, 54(3), 611-624. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-022-01363-5
• Zhao, D., & Fan, L. (2022). What is the most important source for teachers’ knowledge development? A meta-analysis of 27 empirical studies on the sources of teachers’ knowledge. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 10(2), 1375-1393. https://doi.org/10.15354/bece.22.ar036
• Wang, Y., & Fan, L. (2021). Investigating students’ perceptions concerning textbook use in mathematics: a comparative study of secondary schools between Shanghai and England. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53(5), 675-691. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2021.1941265
• Fan, L., Cheng, J., Xie, S., Luo, J., Wang, Y., & Sun, Y. (2021). Are textbooks facilitators or barriers for teachers’ teaching and instructional change? An investigation of secondary mathematics teachers in Shanghai, China. ZDM – Mathematics Education, 53(6), 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-021-01306-6
• Rezat, S., Fan, L. & Pepin, B. (2021). Mathematics textbooks and curriculum resources as instruments for change. ZDM–Mathematics Education, 53(6), 1189-1206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-021-01309-3
• Fan, L. (2021). Exploring issues about values in mathematics education. ECNU Review of Education, 4(2), 388-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311211016002
• Fan, L., Luo. J, Xie, S., & Zhu, Y. (2021). Examining the development of mathematics education research in Chinese mainland from the 1990s to the 2010s: A focused survey. Hiroshima Journal of Mathematics Education, 14. https://www.jasme.jp/hjme/download/2021/02Lianghuo_Fan.pdf
• Fan, L., Xiong, B., Zhao, D., & Niu, W. (2018). How is cultural influence manifested in the formation of mathematics textbooks? A comparative case study of resource book series between Shanghai and England. ZDM-Mathematics Education, 50(5), 787-799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0976-7
• Schubring, G., & Fan L. (2018). Recent advances in mathematics textbook research and development. ZDM-Mathematics Education, 50(5), 765-772. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0979-4
• Fan, L., Qi. C, Liu. X, Wang. Yi, & Lin. M., (2017). Does a transformation approach improve students’ ability in constructing auxiliary lines for solving geometric problems? An intervention-based study with two Chinese classrooms. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 96(2), 229–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-017-9772-5
• Fan, L., & Bokhove, C. (2014). Rethinking the role of algorithms in school mathematics: A conceptual model with focus on cognitive development. ZDM-Mathematics Education, 46(3), 481-492. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0590-2
• Fan, L. (2013). Textbook research as scientific research: towards a common ground on issues and methods of research on mathematics textbooks. ZDM-International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45(5), 765-777. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-013-0530-6
• Fan, L., Zhu, Y. & Miao, Z. (2013). Textbook research in mathematics education: development status and directions. ZDM-International Journal on Mathematics Education, 45(5), 633-646. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-013-0539-x
• Fan, L., & Zhu, Y. (2007). Representation of problem-solving procedures: A comparative look at China, Singapore, and US mathematics textbooks. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 66(1), 61-75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-006-9069-6
• Zhu, Y., & Fan, L. (2006). Focus on the representation of problem types in intended curriculum: A comparison of selected mathematics textbooks from Mainland China and the United States. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 4(4), 609-626. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-006-9036-9
• Fan, L. (2003). A generalization of synthetic division and a general theorem of division of polynomials. Mathematical Medley, 30(1), 30-37.

Book Chapters

• Fan, L. (2024). Textbook transformation as a form of textbook development: Approaches, issues, and challenges from a social and cultural perspective. In J. Wang (Ed.), Proceedings of the 14th International Congress on Mathematical Education (pp. 183-196). World Scientific.
• Cheung, K.-C., Jiang, C. & Fan, L. (2023). Research and Research Culture in Mathematics Education: The Case in Macao, China. In B. Atweh, L. Fan, & C. Vistro-Yu (Eds.), Research in Mathematics Education in Asia: Mapping the Field (pp. 141-162). Springer.
• Fan, L., Luo, J., Xie, S., Li, N., & Li, S. (2022). Investigating Chinese mathematics teachers’ use of digital resources before, during and after mathematics lessons. In J. Hodgen, E. Geraniou, G. Bolondi, & F. Ferretti (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12) (pp. 2534-2541). Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and ERME.
• Fan, L., Mailizar, M., Alafaleq, M., & Wang, Y. (2018). A comparative study on the presentation of geometric proof in secondary mathematics textbooks in China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. In L. Fan, L. Trouche, C. Qi, S. Rezat, & J. Visnovska (Eds.), Research on Mathematics Textbooks and Teachers’ Resources: Advances and Issues (pp. 53-65). Springer.
• Fan, L., Miao, Z., & Mok, I. A. C. (2015). How Chinese teachers teach mathematics and pursue professional development: perspectives from contemporary international research. In L. Fan, N. Y. Wong, J. Cai, & S. Li (Eds.), How Chinese Teach Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders (pp. 43-70). World Scientific.
• Fan, L., Zhu, Y., & Tang, C. (2015). What makes a master teacher? A study of thirty-one mathematics master teachers in Chinese mainland. In L. Fan, N. Y. Wong, J. Cai, & S. Li (Eds.), How Chinese Teach Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders (pp. 491-526). World Scientific.
• Fan, L. (2011). Performance assessment: concepts, methods, and issues for implementation. In L. Fan (Ed.), Performance Assessment in Mathematic. Concepts, Methods, and Examples from Research and Practice in Singapore Classrooms (pp. 14-19). Pearson.
• Fan, L. (2010). Principles and processes for publishing textbooks and alignment with standards: A case in Singapore. In Replicating Exemplary Practices in Mathematics Education among APEC Economies. APEC Human Resources Development Working Group.
• Fan, L., Chen, J., Zhu, Y., Qiu, X., & Hu, Q. (2004). Textbook use within and beyond Chinese mathematics classrooms: A study of 12 secondary schools in Kunming and Fuzhou of China. In L. Fan, N. Y. Wong, J. Cai, & S. Li (Eds.), How Chinese learn mathematics: Perspectives from insiders (pp. 228-261). World Scientific.
• Fan, L., & Zhu, Y. (2004). How have Chinese students performed in mathematics? A perspective from large-scale international mathematics comparisons. In L. Fan, N. Y. Wong, J. Cai, & S. Li (Eds.), How Chinese Learn Mathematics: Perspectives from Insiders (pp. 3-26). World Scientific.
• Fan, L. (2002). A new algorithm for division of polynomials. In H. P. Lee & K. Kumar (Eds.). Recent Advances in Computational Science and Engineering: Proceedings of the International Conference on Scientific and Engineering Computation (pp. 717-721). World Scientific.
• Fan, L. (1998). Applications of arithmetic in the United States and Chinese textbooks: a comparative study. In G. Kaiser, E. Luna, & I. Huntly (Eds.), International Comparison in Mathematics Education (pp. 151-162). Falmer Press.

• Founding Editor-in-Chief, Asian Journal for Mathematics Education, China (2021-present)
• Editor-in-Chief, Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, UK (2017-present)
• Founding Chief Editor, Frontiers in Education (STEM Education), Switzerland (2017-present)
• Editorial Board, Studies in College Mathematics, China (2023-present)
• Editorial Board, The Catalan Journal of Pedagogy, Spain (2020-present)
• Editorial Board, Teaching Innovations, Serbia (2020-present)
• Editorial Board, ECNU Review of Education, China (2019-present)
• Editorial Board, Educação Matemática Debate, Brazil (2016-present)
• Editorial Board, The Quarterly Journal of Chinese Studies, China (2013-current)
• Editorial Board, Journal of Mathematics Education, China (2004-current)
• International Advisory Board, The European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, Turkey (2012-current)

• “Chinese School: the results are in – and it’s good news for rote-learning”, TES, 18 August 2015
• “Numeracy Campaign: What we can learn from China”, The Daily Telegraph, 17 June 2012
• “中國教材，大家一起用”, 新華網, 2018年6月28日
• “這位英國版《一課一練》主編說, 中國教數學也有創造性思維”, 搜狐網, 2017年9月5日
• “國際視野下數學教育改革的若干問題”, 新浪網（博客）, 2011年6月11日