Research Interests
My perspective of research and teaching are inseparable when it comes to educating the future STEM force. Personally, my research goals are highly connected to my presence in the classroom. That is, my research informs my teaching as much as my teaching informs my research. Specifically, my research centers around inclusive methods of instruction and assessment that promote socialization, participation, retention, and inclusion of historically underrepresented groups of STEM students at the undergraduate level. I am particularly interested in how college instructors can support students to foster a sense of belonging and other affective characteristics during their early mathematics courses (i.e., Precalculus and Calculus).
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All of my experiences have helped guide my research focus on understanding how STEM students interact and think through group work and group tests during their Calculus course. As college can be a place where some students lose their voice or willingness to speak in classes, my research with group work and group assessment is largely to help students gain their confidence in voicing their mathematical ideas. To understand this phenomenon, though, will take time and multiple research projects. I have begun examining this through my dissertation research which investigates how students engage during a group test during their Calculus I course and how this engagement can impact their sense of belonging to a mathematics community.
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Overall, my research centers on methods of instruction which help underrepresented students (i.e., by race, gender, LGBTQ+, or disability) feel empowered in the classroom and increase their sense of belonging to mathematics. Exploring these methods of instruction includes the socialization and inclusion of these underrepresented groups in STEM and to understand the continued effects of the use of group testing in their undergraduate calculus series of courses.