Projects

Defining Practice

Overview Defining, a central practice in mathematics, is different from the daily practice of clarifying the meaning of words. Mathematics students often have trouble formulating definitions, interpreting new definitions, and using definitions in proof and problem solving. And whereas students may be able to state many mathematical definitions, these are often presented and received as facts. ...

Geometris

Create an engaging environment in which learners can have a collaborative, embodied experience of geometry.

Kinemathics

Learning is Moving in New Ways UCB Committee on Research: Faculty Research Grants, 2008-2011 The Mathematics Imagery Trainer for Proportion: Make the screen green! Overview At EDRL we have become increasingly interested in the idea that “learning is moving in new ways.” This phrase has two meanings: It is both about students learning new concepts by physically moving ...

Magical Musical Mat

A communicative platform that surfaces the embodied interactions of students in Special Education.

Metaphor Retheorized

Mathematics learning as grounded in developing new sensorimotor perceptual structures.

SignEd|Math

Signs of mathematics: Fostering the development of conceptual gestures among deaf students

Special Education Embodied Design (SpEED)

Special Education Embodied Design (SpEED) sets out to develop guiding principles for building and running embodied design for special education students’ learning of mathematics.

Debugging Failure

Fostering youth academic resilience in computer science

Distributed Learning in Practice and Theory

At the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (Uri Wilensky, Director), we were: (a) building agent-based computer models as learning tools for students to simulate scientific, mathematical, and social phenomena; and (b) analyzing emprical data from our design experiments to develop theoretical models of cognition, teaching, and learning. These theoretical models were by and large expressed ...

Fractal Village

Dissertation Project, Sneha Veeragoudar Harrell Design-based research utilizing a critical and constructionist pedagogical philosophy in an alternative high school setting to study mathematical agency, computational literacy, and identity. Publications Veeragoudar Harrell, S., & Abrahamson, D. (2010). Second Life Unplugged: A design for fostering at-risk students’ STEM agency. In H. Gazit, D. L. Garcia, G. LeMasers, & L. Morgado (Eds.) ...

Gesture Enhancement of Virtual Agent Mathematics Tutor

A virtual pedagogical agent designed to support students in an embodied, discovery-based learning environment.

Giant Steps for Algebra

Overview Giant Steps for Algebra (GS4A) is the dissertation project of Kiera Chase. GS4A is a design-based research project investigating the cognition, teaching, and learning of early algebra. The project is centered on a technology-based activity, in which students use computer-interface resources so as to model a narrative about a giant burying stolen treasure on a desert island. ...

Handing Down Mathematics: The Roles of Gesture in the Design, Teaching, and Learning of Ratio and Proportion

Analyzing videotaped classroom interactions to understand the roles of gesture in the design, teaching, and learning of mathematics. Publications Abrahamson, D. (2007). Handling problems: Embodied reasoning in situated mathematics. In T. Lamberg & L. Wiest (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty Ninth Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 219 ...

Paradigmatic Didactical Mathematical Problematic Situations

In collaboration with Betina Zolkower, Ph.D., Brooklyn College, CUNY. In the PDMPS project, we designed, implemented, and evaluated an experimental curriculum for pre-service teachers and future education researchers enrolled in graduate-level college courses on mathematics cognition, learning, and instruction. Central to this design are selected ‘paradigmatic didactical-mathematical problematic situations,’ i.e., unique activities evoked as contexts for collaborative ...

Seeing Chance

Bridging Informal and Formal Visualizations of Probability Experiments Seed funding: National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellowship to Abrahamson, 2005-6  The Marbles Scooper (design: Dor Abrahamson; engineering & production: Paulo Blikstein). Random sampling of four marbles. The Combinations Tower, the sample space of this probability experiment. An outcome distribution from a computer-based simulation of the marbles-scooping experiment. Overview Consider this paradox. On the ...

The Real World as a Trick Question: Mathematical Modeling, Knowledge, and Assessment

UCB Committee on Research: Junior Faculty Research Grant, 2006-7 This research direction, part of the Seeing Chance project, consisted of conducting and analyzing probability-related clinical interviews with college students majoring in statistics to explore issues of intuitive reasoning.  Abrahamson, D. (2007, April). The real world as a trick question: Undergraduate statistics majors’ construction-based modeling of probability. Paper presented ...

The Three M’s: Imagination, Embodiment, and Mathematics

Research into the mechanisms and potential role of imagination in mathematical reasoning. Abrahamson, D. (2006, June). The three M’s: Imagination, embodiment, and mathematics. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Jean Piaget Society, June 1-3, Baltimore, MD. ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to call for research into the mechanisms and potential agency of imagination in mathematical ...