Our team features productive researchers who have contributed substantially to research in their respective fields. All core mentors are located at UW–Madison and are available to serve as primary or secondary mentors. Faculty affiliates are available to serve as secondary mentors. Many members of the team have a history of collaboration via co-mentoring, co-authoring, or co-leading funded research projects.
Core Mentors
Dr. Percival Matthews (PI)
Dr. Percival Matthews, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and Associate Dean for the School of Education’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. His training in cognitive development and experimental design complements his extensive background operating in K-12 educational contexts. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and is a member of the Wisconsin Education Research Advisory Council. He has served as PI or co-PI on grants from NSF, IES, NIH, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Dr. Priyanka Agarwal
Dr. Priyanka Agarwal, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction. Dr. Agarwal draws on her training in mathematics and the interdisciplinary fields of learning, cognition, and developmental sciences, and uses micro-ethnographic and design-based research approaches to construct a broader view of mathematics and mathematical learning. Her research centers on the design, analysis, and development of mathematical thinking in collaborative settings over relatively short time spans of minutes or days. She also studies the entanglements among the cognitive, sociocultural, and political dimensions of how people learn.
Dr. Martha Alibali
Dr. Martha W. Alibali, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Psychology. Dr. Alibali conducts research at the interface of developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and mathematics education. Her primary line of research investigates mathematics learning and development, with a special focus on the role of gesture, diagrams, and other representations in mathematical thinking and knowledge change. She is also interested in the role of gesture in thinking and communication in educational settings. She has served as mentor/preceptor in several predoctoral and postdoctoral training grants, and she is currently Director of the IES-funded Interdisciplinary Training Program for Predoctoral Research in the Education Sciences.
Dr. Hala Ghousseini
Dr. Hala Ghousseini, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Education in Curriculum & Instruction. Dr. Ghousseini’s scholarship focuses on understanding how teachers learn complex responsive teaching and how the designs of professional education can support them in developing knowledge, skills, and commitments that center students as sensemakers and resist oppressive practices. Ghousseini has served as PI on grants from the Spencer Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Dr. Nicole Louie
Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction. Dr. Louie’s research investigates cultural and political dimensions of mathematics teaching and learning in K-12 settings. Her current project, funded by an NSF CAREER grant, uses participatory methods to engage youth and parents of color as co-researchers and co-designers of racial equity in mathematics education.
Dr. Mitchell Nathan
Dr. Mitchell Nathan, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Learning Sciences in the Department of Educational Psychology, with affiliate appointments in the Curriculum & Instruction and Psychology. Dr. Nathan has authored peer-reviewed publications on the cognitive, embodied, and social processes of STEM thinking, learning, and teaching, and has secured research funds from NSF, IES, and private foundations. Nathan served on two consensus committees for NASEM on STEM education. He is an inductee of the UW–Madison’s Teaching Academy, which promotes excellence in teaching in higher education, and served on its executive board. Nathan is a Fellow of the International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Dr. Ana Stephens
Dr. Ana Stephens, Researcher at WCER, UW–Madison. Dr. Stephens’ work focuses on the development of students’ and teachers’ algebraic reasoning and has led to numerous high-impact, peer reviewed publications as well as multiple presentations to in-service teachers. She teaches mathematics methods courses for elementary and middle school teachers and co-authored a recently published early algebra curriculum. Dr. Stephens has served as PI or co-PI on multiple federally funded grant projects.
Core Faculty Affiliates
Dr. Maxine McKinney De Royston
Dean of Faculty, Erikson Institute. Dr. McKinney de Royston’s scholarship centers around two research strands: understanding the multidimensional and politicized nature of teaching and learning; and examining how learning environments, such as STEM classrooms, operate as racialized learning spaces, interactionally and pedagogically. She was formerly a Faculty Fellow with the Teacher Education Center and a co-organizer of the Junior Faculty of Color organization at UW–Madison. She has served as PI or Co-PI on grants from the Spencer Foundation, NSF, Ford Foundation, and Mellon Foundation.