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Designing for sensemaking and engagement in mathematics

Designing for sensemaking and engagement in mathematics

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Puzzling Proofs

 

Project description:
An ongoing design-based research project that aims to support adolescents’ engagement in authentic epistemic practices in mathematics.

Approach:
With constant feedback from students, educators and learning scientists I aim to design a proving activity that (i) creates opportunities for students to “see” and engage in often invisible mathematical epistemic practices, and (ii) demystifies the process and goals of proofs in mathematics. I have conducted interviews and observational studies with low- and high- tech designs of a puzzle-like proving activity.

Design iterations for “Puzzling Proofs” project

Main insights:
Although research is still ongoing in this project, some of the themes that have emerged so far include:
(i) the influence of materials (i.e. physical paper vs. digital manifestation of papers) and workspace (in-person vs. online) in students’ experiences,
(ii) opportunities for collaboration that have the potential to create more equitable experiences even among students with different degrees of familiarity with mathematical content, and
(iii) drawing parallels between everyday argumentation and argumentation in mathematics that highlights structural similarities in building and supporting arguments can increase learners’ accessibility to mathematical practices.

Notes:
–   Poster presentation: Graduate School of Education Research Day 2018, UC Berkeley (prototype)
–   Poster presentation: Psychology of Mathematics Education Annual Conference 2019, South Africa (pilot study with physical design)
–   Invited talk: Short presentation in “Womxn in Mathematics (WiM)” student group, UC Berkeley

Working with interactive data visualizations

Working with interactive data visualizations

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DataSketch: Supporting Data Visualization Literacy in the Middle Grades

 

Project Description:
This NSF-funded project (award #1350282, PI: Michelle Hoda Wilkerson) aimed to support middle school students’ design and exploration of interactive data visualizations. It involved two interrelated strands: (i) the development and research of a tablet-based tool for students to create sketches and program them to respond to archival data input, and (ii) research on youths’ knowledge and skills needed to create, make sense of, and learn from interactive data visualizations.

Approach:
We used a collaborative-design approach with longitudinal tool interviews with middle school students and repeated input from educators, learning scientists, and designers of educational technologies. We worked with software developers and undergraduate students interested in UX design and computer science to implement changes based on feedback from the various stakeholders for tool use.

First DataSketch prototype

 

Second DataSketch prototype

Main insights:
When developing computational tools for learning, input from potential users should go beyond the design of the tool interface to include and address the diverse needs and goals users might have for using the tool.

Notes:
–   Poster presentation: 2016 Postdoc and Graduate Student Poster Competition, Tufts University.
–   2016 STEM for all Video Showcase: DataSketch: Data-Driven Visualization in Middle School, TERC.
–   Conference presentation: 2017 Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC 2017), Stanford University.
–   Paper presentation: 2019 annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA 2019); For the work presented here I was awarded the 2019 Robert F. Tinker AERA scholarship for innovative student work in the learning sciences and/or advanced technologies in learning.
–   Book chapter (under revision): Learning from “interpretations of innovation” in the co-design of digital tools