Research interests: embodied cognition, inclusive STEM education, neurodiversity and disability, design-based research, multimodal learning analytics
My work investigates the intersection of embodied cognition and disability studies with a focus on the bearing of students’ diverse sensory experiences on their conceptual learning. My current focus is on individual differences in sensory systems like the vestibular (balance and orientation) system, and accessibility for learners who for example might need a greater amount of stimulation to this system. This work is inspired by my career working with K-12 learners, particularly students identified as having challenges with learning, attention, and behavior in typical classroom contexts. I am a doctoral candidate in the joint doctoral program in Special Education at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program fellow.
Active lab projects: Balance Board Math, SpEED
Contact: sofiatancredi (at) berkeley (dot) edu, sofiatancredi.com
Select Publications:
Tancredi, S., & Abrahamson, D. (2024). Stimming as thinking: A critical reevaluation of self-stimulatory behavior as an epistemic resource for inclusive education. Educational Psychology Review, 36(3), 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09904-y
Tancredi, S. (2024). Balance Board Math: Exploring the sense of balance as a basis for functions and graphing and number line concepts. Digital Experiences in Mathematics Education, 10(2), 202-227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40751-024-00140-1
Abrahamson, D., Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y., Flood, V. J., & Dutton, E. (2023). Embodied design of digital resources for mathematics education: Theory, methodology, and framework of a pedagogical research program. In B. Pepin, G. Gueude, & J. Choppin (Eds.), Handbook of digital (curriculum) resources in mathematics education. Springer.
Tancredi, S., Wang, J. X., Li, H. L., Yao, C. J., Macfarlan, G. L., & Ryokai, K. (2022). Balance Board Math: “Being the graph” through the sense of balance for embodied self-regulation and learning. In M. Horn, M. Giannakos, & T. Pontual (Eds.), Proceedings of IDC ’22: Interaction Design and Children (Vol. “Full papers”, pp. 137–149). https://doi.org/10.1145/3501712.3529743
Lambert, S. G., Tancredi, S., Fiedler, B. L., Moore, E. B., Gorlewicz, J. L., Abrahamson, D., & Gomez Paloma, F. (2022). Getting a grip on geometry: Developing a tangible manipulative for inclusive quadrilateral learning. Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics, 6(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v6i1.604
Tancredi, S., Wang, J., Helen Tong Li, Yao, C. J., Ryokai, K., & Abrahamson, D. (2022). Graphing with Balance Board Math: Critical embodied design for regulation and learning. In C. Chinn, E. Tan, C. Chan, & Y. Kali (Eds.), “International collaboration toward educational innovation for all: Overarching research, development, and practices”—Proceedings of the 16th annual meeting of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2022), Hiroshima, Japan (online) (pp. 1181-1184). ISLS.
Tancredi, S., Abdu, R., Balasubramaniam, R., & Abrahamson, D. (2022).Intermodality in multimodal learning analytics for cognitive theory development: A case from embodied design for mathematics learning. In M. Giannakos, D. Spikol, D. Di Mitri, K. Sharma, X. Ochoa, & R. Hammad (Eds.), The multimodal learning analytics handbook (pp. 133-158). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08076-0_6
Tancredi, S., Chen, R. S. Y., Krause, C. M., & Siu, Y.–T. (2022). The need for SpEED: Reimagining accessibility through Special Education Embodied Design. In S. L. Macrine & J. M. B. Fugate (Eds.), Movement matters: How embodied cognition informs teaching and learning (pp. 197–216). M.I.T. Press.
Tancredi, S., Abdu, R., Abrahamson, D., & Balasubramaniam, R. (2021, 2021/04/03/). Modeling nonlinear dynamics of fluency development in an embodied-design mathematics learning environment with Recurrence Quantification Analysis. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 100297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100297