Math Education

My work in math education has focused on computer-assisted learning. One line of work has examined From Here to There (FH2T). FH2T is an interactive game-based computer program designed to help teach students principles of mathematical equivalence, developed by Erin Ottmar at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and colleagues. In FH2T, each piece of an equation becomes an object that students can physically manipulate and move about in order to recombine and transform mathematical expressions into equivalent forms. Students can drag, tap, break apart and recombine numbers and operations in a gamified environment with the goal of turning one equation into an equivalent alternative form. I have also been involved in work with ASSISTments, a web-based intelligent math tutor built and operated by Neil Heffernan and colleagues also at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. For students, ASSISTments offers immediate feedback allowing them to try again if they answered a problem incorrectly. This feedback can involve simply letting a student know their answer was incorrect, as well as more elaborate support, such as hints (e.g., "you seem to be confusing circumference and perimeter"), or scaffolding work to help them learn the concept in question. For teachers, ASSISTments provides an automatic, easy-to-use system to continuously evaluate learning and retention in math, including real-time reports of class-level and individual student-level understanding of particular problems in order to target teaching and individualize learning.

As reflected in the representative work listed below, we have found evidence supporting both of these educational tools in separate IES-funded randomized control trial studies.

Representative Work