College of Education
Curriculum & Instruction
http://education.illinois.edu/ci/frp/ggonzlz
Faculty Research Profiles: Gloriana González
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Assistant Professor
Curriculum & Instruction
387 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Research Biography
My research focuses on how teachers manage students’ prior knowledge. I am interested in examining teachers’ decision-making when handling students’ prior knowledge and the rationality underlying those decisions. I have studied this question in the particular case of the high school geometry class, which has special demands for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Methodologically, I apply Systemic Functional Linguistics to the analysis of both classroom talk and discussions among teachers.
I have found that geometry teachers shape the collective memory of the class with timely actions geared towards making students remember something from the past or towards making something memorable in the future. Moreover, geometry teachers not only control what students have to remember, but also what students have to forget as a result of teaching with a problem. In the future, I expect to have a detailed description of teaching moves to manage students’ prior knowledge in problem-based instruction. I am also interested in developing applications of my findings for the purpose of teacher education through the design of innovative rich-media environments that would scaffold how teachers consider students' prior knowledge as they plan mathematical tasks for their students.
I have a special interest in the teaching and learning of geometry. In the past, I have investigated relationships between justifications for teaching geometry and the historical development of the American high school geometry curriculum. I have also studied how the use of dynamic geometry provokes new challenges and possibilities in geometry classrooms.
Degrees
- Ph.D., Mathematics Education, University of Michigan, 2009
- M.S., Mathematics Education, Cornell University, 1995
- B.A., Secondary Mathematics Education, University of Puerto Rico, 1993
Key Professional Appointments
- Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009--
Activities & Honors
- Reviewer, Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 2011- present
- Reviewer, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 2011- present
- Reviewer, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 2011- present
- NSF's Mathematics Education "Service, Teaching, and Research" Mentoring Program, STaR Fellow, National Science Foundation, 2010-2011
- Faculty Fellow, Hardie Faculty Fellows Program, College of Education, 2010-2011
- Stanley E. and Ruth B. Dimond Best Dissertation Award, School of Education, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2010
- List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, University of Illinois, 2010
- Reviewer, ZDM - The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 2010
- Reviewer, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2010
- Susan S. Lipschutz Award for exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility and service, and a lively interest in promoting the success of women in the academic community, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2008
- Beginning Researcher Award to attend the Discovery Research K-12 Principal Investigators Conference, National Science Foundation, 2007
- Jones, Payne, Coxford Award for outstanding doctoral student in mathematics education, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2006
- Reviewer, Psychology of Mathematics Education-North American Chapter, 2005- present
- Reviewer, Divisions C, K, and SIG/RME, AERA, Division K, 2005-2011
- Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics Fellowship, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2004-2006
- School of Education Scholars Award, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2003-2008
Grants
- Principal Investigator, Mathematics teachers' decision-making when activating students' prior knowledge in problem-based instruction, Campus Research Board, 2011
Selected Publications
- González, G., & DeJarnette, A. (accepted). Agency in a geometry review lesson: A linguistic view on teacher and student division of labor. Linguistics and Education.
- González, G., & DeJarnette, A. (in press). Reasoning with a geometric problem about a circle. The Mathematics Teacher.
- González, G. (2011). Who does what?: A linguistic approach to analyzing teachers’ reactions to videos. ZDM-The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 43(1), 65-80.
- González, G., & Herbst, P. (2009). Students' conceptions of congruency through the use of dynamic geometry software. International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, 14, 153-182.
- Nachlieli, T., & Herbst, P., with González, G. (2009). Seeing a colleague encourage a student to make an assumption while proving: What teachers put to play in casting an episode of geometry instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 40(4), 427-459.
