Team

Gloriana González (Project PI)

Gloriana González Gloriana González, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and College of Education Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Puerto Rico, a M.S. in Mathematics Education from Cornell University, and her doctorate from the University of Michigan.  She has prior experience teaching middle school and high school mathematics in Massachusetts and Puerto Rico.  She taught pretty much everything from seventh grade mathematics to AP Calculus, but always asked to teach Geometry, because she loves to solve geometry problems and seek connections with art.  Her research focuses on investigating how teachers manage students’ prior knowledge in problem-based instruction.  She is the Principal Investigator of a project funded by the National Science Foundation, CAREER: Noticing and Using Students’ Prior Knowledge in Problem-based Instruction.  The project aims at developing a professional development model integrating Lesson Study, video clubs, and discussions of animated vignettes to support teacher attention to student thinking.  Methodologically, she uses tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics to analyze the content of classroom talk and conversations among teachers.  She received the 2015 Emerging Scholar Award from the North American Systemic Functional Linguistics Association.  Learning with and from teachers about ways to make mathematics interesting and relevant to all students motivates her to pursue research in mathematics education.

Recent Contributors

  • Michelle Samet (Graduate Research Assistant)

    Michelle Samet is a graduate student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).  She received her B.S. in Mathematics with a Secondary Education Minor from UIUC in 2017.  Her research interests include ​middle and high school math education, higher education issues, and attitude and beliefs about student’s mathematics identities. She has taken a special interest in collaboration and assessment issues as well. 

  • Lisa Skultety (Graduate Research Assistant)

    Lisa Skultety is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a focus in mathematics education.  She earned her B.S. in Mathematics and Secondary Education from Ball State University and her Ed.M. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Before graduate school, Lisa was a middle school and high school math teacher in Houston, Texas.  Her experiences as a classroom teacher sparked her interest in professional development and has led to her pursuit of using practical changes to impact classroom teaching.  Her interest in her dissertation focus, teachers' noticing in math classrooms, began with her work with the NUSPK project.  In 2015-2016, Lisa was selected to participate as a National Science Foundation's CADRE Fellow.  

  • Gabriela Vargas (Project Manager & Graduate Research Assistant)

    Gabriela is a graduate student in Curriculum and Instruction at UIUC. She has a B.A. in Mathematics and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Before graduate school Gabriela tutored and shadowed math coaches in the San Francisco/ Bay area. Along with her this experience and her own educational experience, Gabriela became interested in critical mathematics education and how to support the development of teachers’ and students’ mathematics identities.  Gabriela was selected as a National Science Foundation CADRE Fellow for 2017-2018.

  • Annie Lin (Graphic Designer)

    Annie Lin studied New Media and Painting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated with a B.A. in the spring of 2015 with a penchant for the animated arts. Annie illustrated all animations and designed the website for NUSPK.  Presently, she works as a multimedia artist, focusing her skills on educational animations and illustrations for a non-profit group, Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO).

 

Past Contributors

Graduate Research Assistants

  • Jason T. Deal 

  • Anna F. DeJarnette, PhD 

  • Sahid L. Rosado 

Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Ana Isabel Artiaga 

  • Alexandro Esquivel

  • Christina Jordahl

  • Kelly Mehan

  • Kristin Osakada

  • Caroline Szostak 

  • Cameron Wieczorek 

  • Joseph Zeller

Website Development

  • Elijah Byrd

  • Michael McKelvey

Advisory Board Members

  • Dr. George Francis

  • Dr. Enrique Galindo

  • Dr. Miriam Sherin

  • Dr. Paola Sztajn

Project Evaluator

  • Dr. Tami Martin