Faculty + Student Profiles
Rachaya Srisurichan
University of Wisconsin
Candace Walkington
University of Wisconsin
Mitchell Nathan
University of Wisconsin
How do we represent knowledge and make meaning? What is special about abstract knowledge and representations? My research is largely rooted in cognitive, embodied and social perspectives on learning and instruction in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). I examine how people represent knowledge and make meaning from representations as they arise for individuals and as they serve groups in the contexts of design, instruction, problem solving, and learning. Before getting a degree in cognitive psychology, I worked as a practicing aerospace engineer in robotics and sensor integration. I am now Professor of Learning Sciences with appointments in the Departments of Educational Psychology, Curriculum & Instruction, and Psychology, the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) and the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Michael Smith
San Diego State University
Michael is a doctoral student at the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education (CRMSE) at San Diego State University. HIs research with Ricardo Nemirovsky currently explores the work of mathematicians in order to better understand the way those mathematicians experience and embody their discipline, both when describing work they've done before and when collaborating with peers. Michael is also interested in the pragmatic connections between learning and neurology. He earned his bachelors degree in computer science & mathematics from Saint Martin's College in Lacey, WA in 2003 and his MS in mathematics from the University of Oregon in 2006.
Bohdan Rhodehamel
San Diego State University
Bohdan Rhodehamel is an assistant researcher at the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education (CRMSE) at San Diego State University. He works with Ricardo Nemirovsky at the Mathematics Technology Lab at SDSU to design and fabricate mathematical devices intended to promote haptic and kinesthetic engagement both inside and outside of the classroom. He also works with Ricardo Nemirovsky on a project investigating perceptuo-motor learning in informal education environments at science museums. Bohdan received his BA in mathematics and Spanish from SDSU in 2003 and his MA in Mathematics Education from SDSU in 2006. He also teaches developmental mathematics at Southwestern College where he is involved in developing the Developmental Mathematics Collection, a web-based community designed to facilitate the sharing of resources and effective practices.
Katie Headrick Taylor
Vanderbilt University
Katie Headrick Taylor is a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. She is currently conducting ethnographic research with professional planners and residents participating in a community update plan. Her research interests include how people "learn on the move" based on individual mobility and the affordances and constraints of particular environments. Headrick Taylor has conducted small-scale studies of adolescents' use of time and access to nonformal learning environments, including a local bicycle workshop. Before her graduate career, Katie taught English at Daimon High School in Fukuyama, Japan followed by two years of teaching in an alternative learning high school for in-crisis and homeless teens in Nashville, Tennessee. She has a BA from New York University in Metropolitan Studies.
Nathan Phillips
Vanderbilt University
Nathan is a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. He is currently studying young people's interpretations and productions of thematic maps and map-body performances for making arguments. Nathan is interested, generally, in the ways that young people live and learn across virtual and physical landscapes and among multiple media. With Kevin Leander, he has spent time observing the routine spatial analysis practices of emergency medical flight communicators (and managed to hitch a couple rides in a helicopter as part of that work). Before coming to Vanderbilt, Nathan was a high school English, journalism, creative writing, and film teacher in Utah. He has a BA and MA in English from Brigham Young University.
Jasmine Y. Ma
Vanderbilt University
Jasmine is interested in the mathematical activity and learning of people across contexts, and the mediational role of bodies, technological tools, space/place, and participation structures. Currently, she is involved in case studies of a group of archaeologists who study the lived experiences of Inkans under Spanish colonial rule, and a competitive high school marching band. She has also spent some time in skateparks, investigating the spatial practices and learning of skateboarders. Before joining the doctoral program in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt, Jasmine taught high school mathematics at a small independent school in Massachusetts. Jasmine has a BS in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science from Yale University, and an EdM in Technology in Education from Harvard University.
Kevin Leander
Vanderbilt University
Kevin Leander studies literacy and identity, learning as mobile social practice, spatial analysis and modeling, and learning ecologies as mediated by new technologies. His earlier research investigates how spatial and embodied perspectives may help us understand social processes in classroom interaction, as well as the relations between online and offline social spaces. In the present project he is invested in understanding how changing ways of seeing, representing, and “practicing” the body in social space are related to changing ways of thinking and learning. This work is presently focused on case studies of spatial analysis and modeling in professional work groups. Leander is also active in the Wired Up Project at Utrecht University. In Wired Up, he is examining the how social media practices are shaping the identity processes and learning experiences of immigrant youth. Outside of work, Leander’s own space-time pathway is greatly influenced by driving his children around.
Ricardo Nemirovsky
San Diego State University
Ricardo Nemirovsky is a physicist by training who has directed educational projects in Argentina, Mexico, and USA. He received his doctorate in mathematics education in 1993, from Harvard University. His research focuses on the learning of mathematics and system dynamics at all grade levels. He has developed together with many other colleagues a body of work that supports the creation of a longitudinal strand on the mathematics of change across educational levels, highlights the centrality of bodily and kinesthetic activities in the learning of mathematics, and articulates a perspective on the role of tools for students' learning. In addition to several dozen research papers, he has co-authored curricular units, and has designed multiple devices for students' use. He is currently professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, San Diego State University, and Director of the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education. His teaching includes courses on theories of learning, geometry, and educational technology.
Rogers Hall
Vanderbilt University
Rogers Hall studies the organization and development of representational practices in technical and scientific work. How do people, practices and concepts change, in relation to each other, at different time scales? Settings for these studies include middle school classrooms, professional workplaces, and life off the school/work grid. Rogers wants to know how the body changes over biographical time to enact a disciplinary perspective. But he also wants to know how these perspectives change, as the body is deployed, dynamically, in interaction with other people, things, and the environment. On the Tangible Math project, Rogers does case studies of professional work groups engaged in spatial analysis and modeling. He also does design experiments on changing scale and modality for learning and teaching the mathematics of space and motion. The case studies and design experiments are intended to inform each other. Rogers has taught and done research at Vanderbilt University since 2002, following a decade of the same at the University of California, Berkeley. His doctorate is in Information and Computer Science (UC Irvine, 1990). Rogers swims a lot, mostly to deal with a persistent desire to go surfing. It doesn't work very well, but he tries not to be bitter about it.
