Abstract:

This study aimed at identifying main domains and sub- domains of research in Mathematics Education, and specifying its priorities in Saudi Arabia. To achieve those two goals, a survey consisted of eight domains was developed in light of related literature and experts' feedback . The survey was distributed to (31) experts in mathematics education in order to explore their opinions on ranking the mathematics education research priorities using three rounds of Delphi technique to achieve experts' consensus on the Items' ranking. A pilot study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. Cronbach Alpha's coefficient was used to determine the instrument reliability, which was 0.94.
After three rounds of Delphi technique, survey items were ranked from high priority to low priority at a current time. The eight main domains were ranked as follows; (1) Mathematics teachers preparation and training; (2) Educational technology that is related to mathematics education; (3) Evaluation in mathematics education; (4) Mathematics teaching;(5) Mathematics learning; (6) Mathematics curricula and its standards; (7) nature, history, and philosophy of mathematics; (8) Culture diversity and gender differences in mathematics education.
Regarding the whole 31 items; the sub-domains of research in mathematics education, the first ten research's priorities ranked as follows: (1) professional development of mathematics teachers; (2) Technology merging in mathematics education; (3) Building and developing mathematics curricula; (4) Mathematical concepts and its development of children's cognition; (5) Teachers' competency evaluation; (6) Teachers' preparation programs; (7) Goals, vision, policy, and standards of mathematics education; (8) policy and standards of choosing and preparing teachers of mathematics; (9) Teaching and learning mathematics for gifted and talented students and the special needs ; (10) Technology roles in evaluation process of mathematics learning