I think about my educational interests in two interconnected realms:
My long-standing involvement in math competitions and community-based volunteer work has sparked an interest in how such experiences shape young learners, particularly those aged 13–20. I wonder:
What impact do these activities have on student development?
Does the type of activity influence the outcome?
How do we design such experiences and how do different design choices affect the experience?
Do they really work — and how do we know?
and more!
My experiences as a graduate student, teaching assistant, and mathematics educator have led me to a growing interest in how we prepare those who teach mathematics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In particular, I am interested in the often implicit transition from being a strong mathematics student to becoming an effective instructor or teaching assistant, and what kinds of support make this transition meaningful.
This raises several questions for me:
How do we actually learn to teach mathematics, and what forms of training are most effective?
What kinds of pedagogical knowledge do graduate students and TAs develop naturally, and what needs to be explicitly taught?
How do institutional structures shape the teaching identities of future instructors?
In what ways can TA and instructor training be designed to better support communication, clarity, and student engagement in mathematics?
How do we evaluate whether such training is actually effective in practice?
I am especially interested in how mathematical communication, teaching practice, and professional identity develop together, and how we can build environments that support thoughtful, reflective, and confident mathematics educators.