Karen Hollebrands
North Carolina State University, NC·Education Research
Software that lets students drag and reshape geometric figures can spark rich classroom discussion. But teachers need training to notice what students are thinking and to build a productive class conversation around it.
- Fields
Education Research
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
mathematics education
teacher education
preservice teachers
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Sep 2028
What they work on
- Create online modules with high-demand geometry tasks, video cases and grades 6–12 student work that prepare future teachers to lead productive discussions using web-based dynamic geometry tools.
- Study how 40–60 prospective middle and high school mathematics teachers notice students' geometric thinking with technology and use that analysis to plan whole-class discussions.
- Support 30–40 mathematics teacher educators in using the materials and examine how this support changes their knowledge of technology and teaching.
More about the research
This collaborative project prepares future middle and high school mathematics teachers, who are now undergraduates, to use web-based dynamic geometry tools to lead such discussions.
Why it matters
Better-prepared teachers could help grades 6–12 students learn geometry more deeply through technology-supported discussion. Free online modules give teacher-preparation programs across the country ready-made materials, and the research may show how future teachers learn to read and respond to student thinking.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wendy Smith
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE·Education Research
Examine how networked improvement communities in the MTEP 2.0 network support, accelerate and sustain changes to secondary mathematics teacher preparation programs, using annual interviews with representative case studies.
Stephanie Casey
Eastern Michigan University, MI·Education Research
Examine how well undergraduate programs prepare teachers for data science and statistics, using surveys and classroom observations of early-career mathematics teachers.
Jeanna Wieselmann
Southern Methodist University, TX·Education Research
Develop two practice formats for preservice science teachers, AI-driven virtual reality avatar simulations and scaffolded peer teaching, to build skill in leading discussions of real-world scientific problems.
The school
North Carolina State University: 40 labs on PI Pages, $717M a year on research, 603 research doctorates a year.
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