Justin Dimmel: Cultivating Elementary Teachers Sense of Mathematical Agency Through Real-World Exploration and Evidence-Based Instructional Practices
The lingering effects of the pandemic together with pressures created by the advent of generative AI have created an urgent need for K-8 mathematics teachers to incorporate new instructional strategies into their teaching practice. This elementary mathematics cohort will focus on helping teachers discover and enhance their own sense of mathematical agency through collaborative problem-solving and activity design sessions.
While any educator involved in K-8 mathematics education is welcome to attend this workshop, we are especially interested in reaching teachers who would not identify mathematics as their primary strength. The problem-solving activities will focus on cultivating robust, flexible and durable conceptions of number and arithmetic operations. These activities will be informed by decades of research and guidance from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics that highlight strategies for cultivating numeracy in children across all grade levels. The session will also include enrichment activities that will help K-8 teachers connect doing mathematics with exploring their local environment, to the end of creating activities for K-8 students that will allow them to meaningfully engage in mathematics while being outside.
Justin Dimmel is associate dean for academics and student engagement in the College of Education and Human Development, where he also serves as an associate professor of mathematics education and instructional technology. He is the founder and director of the Immersive Mathematics in Rendered Environments (IMRE) Lab, which designs virtual and augmented reality math and science learning environments, and investigates how VR and AR technologies can transform STEM education. In addition, he led a team that developed the SunRule, an interactive sculpture that harnesses the rays of the sun to help users explore multiplication and division.