|
Betina Andrea Zolkower, Ph.D.
2900 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn
,
NY
,
11210
BetinaZ@brooklyn.cuny.edu
PERSONAL: Born in 1959 in Buenos
Aires, Argentina.
Permanent resident in the US
since 1987.
EDUCATION
| 1987-1996 |
Ph.D.
in Sociology,
Graduate
Center
of the
City
University
of
New
York
. Thesis: “Math fictions: Elementary
mathematics education and the modern pedagogical paradigm.”
Fields of specialization: classical and contemporary social
theory; sociology and philosophy of education; sociology of
knowledge; sociology of science; curriculum theory; mathematics
education; and mathematics teacher education. |
| 1980-1986 |
Licenciatura
(Masters) in Educational Sciences,
University of Buenos Aires
,
Argentina.
General foundations of education, including philosophy, history
and sociology of education in
Latin America
and in
Argentina
;
special education; curriculum theory and design; and research
methods. Preparation for teaching at the middle school, high
school, and college levels. |
| 1978-1980 |
Studies
in Mathematics and Physics,
University
of
Buenos
Aires
. Completed five mathematics
courses for the Licenciatura in Exact Sciences. |
FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
|
| 1993-1994 |
Spencer
Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to
Education.
|
| Spring 2005 |
CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publications Program.
|
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
|
| Sept.02
- Present |
Assistant
Professor,
School
of
Education
,
Middle Childhood Mathematics Program.
Brooklyn
College
of
New
York
|
| Sept.
00-Aug. 02 |
Assistant
Professor,
School
of
Education
,
Department of Elementary Education.
City
College
of
New
York
|
| Sept.
99 – Aug. 00 |
Co-Director
of the Mathematics in the City Calendar of Events, a project that
provided professional development for elementary as well as middle
school teachers.
|
| Sept.
99- Dec. 99 |
Substitute
Assistant Professor in the Elementary Education Department, School
of Education,
City
College
|
| July
99, 98, 97, 96 |
Instructor,
Mathematics in the City Summer Institute, in collaboration with
Freudenthal Institute staff and project teachers.
|
| July
97 - Aug. 99 |
Project
Associate of Mathematics in the City, an in-service, NSF-funded
teacher enhancement project directed by Cathy Fosnot (CCNY) in
collaboration with Maarten Dolk and Willem Uitenbogaard
(Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht).
|
| Spring
1995 |
Adjunct
Lecturer, Department of Arts Education, Pratt Institute. Course:
Foundations in the Philosophy of Education.
|
| 1993-1994 |
Adjunct
Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Social Work, Lehman
College,
CUNY. Courses: Introduction to Sociology and Education and Social
Inequality.
|
| July
1992 |
Mathematics
Instructor, El Barrio Popular Education, a program for recent
immigrant, Spanish-speaking women preparing for the GED
Examination.
|
| Summer
1989 |
Teaching
Assistant, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Campus, Livingston
College
Education Opportunity
Fund (EOF, Summer Program).
|
| 1985-1986 |
Adjunct
Instructor, University
of Buenos
Aires. Courses: Introduction to
Logic, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science.
|
| 1983-1985 |
Teacher,
Center for Education,
Buenos Aires
.
Taught logic, mathematics, and Spanish grammar in an after-school
program for students preparing for high school admission
examination as well as remedial mathematics courses for high
school students.
|
PUBLICATIONS
|
| 2006 |
“A
teacher’s mediation of a thinking aloud discussion in a 6th
grade mathematics classroom.” Co-authored with Sam Shreyar.
Forthcoming in Educational Studies in Mathematics.
|
| 2006 |
“Las
imágenes y las preguntas en la escuela.” Co-authored with Ana
Bressan and Silvia Perez. In Novedades
Educativas 182 (February), pp. 22-26.
|
| 2004 |
“Los principios de la
educación matemática realista.” Co-authored with Ana Bressan, and
Fernanda Gallego. In Reflecciones
Teóricas para la Educación Matemática. Edited by
Humberto Alagia, Ana
Bressan, and Patricia Sadovsky. Editorial Libros del Zorzal,
Buenos Aires, Argentina: pp.69-98.
|
| 2003 |
“La relevancia de los contextos en la resolución
de situaciones-problema: Una experiencia para docentes y sus
capacitadores.” Co-authored with Pérez,
da Valle, and Bressan, Paradigma
(
Venezuela
|
| 2002 |
“Shortest
pathways: Interaction and semiotic apprenticeship in a 6th grade
classroom.” Co-authored with Sam Shreyar. Proceedings
of the 20th PANAMA Conference, Freudenthal Institute (The
Netherlands).
|
| 2001 |
“¿Es cierto eso, señorita?” Co-authored with Silvia Perez and Ana Bressan. Novedades
Educativas 13(130).
Buenos
Aires
(
Argentina).
|
| 2001 |
“El
aprendizaje de los números racionales.” Co-authored with
Adriana Rabino and Ana Bressan. Novedades
Educativas, Volume 13(129): pp. 16-20.
|
| 1998 |
“Bridging
the gap between school mathematics and common sense: A realistic
turn.” The Constructivist
(Summer): pp. 5-14.
|
| 1999 |
Contextos y modelos en la didáctica realista de
la matemática. Novedades Educativas
11(108): pp. 44-7.
|
| 1998 |
Reinventing
mathematics education: An
Instructor’s manual for the Mathematics in the City Summer
Institutes. Mathematics in the City:
City
College
,
School
of
Education.
|
| 1995 |
“Math
fictions: What really solves the problem? In Technoscience
and Cyberculture, edited by Stanley Aronowitz et al., New York and London:
Routledge.
|
| 1994 |
“Ficciones matemáticas..” Propuesta
Educativa 5(11): pp.5-18, FLACSO, Buenos Aires.
|
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
|
| 2006 |
“Los
procesos de intercambio y la apropiacion de ideas en el aula de
matemática.” A
year- long action research project conducted in a 4th
grade classroom, in collaboration with Ana Bressan and two
teachers from the GPDM.
|
GRANTS AWARDED
|
| 2003-8 |
MetroMath:
The Center for Mathematics in
America
’s
Cities, a Center for Teaching and Learning (CLT), a project funded
by The National Science Foundation (10M). This Center partners
Rutgers
University
,
CUNY, and the
University
of
Pennsylvania
with community institutions and school districts in NYC,
Philadelphia
,
and
Newark
.
MetroMath offers Mathematics Leadership Institutes (MILE) and
graduate seminars. Center faculty works on research around the
topic of mathematics teaching and learning in urban settings.
|
| 2001-2 |
Bridging
the Gap between School Mathematics and Common Sense: The Realistic
Approach. PSC-CUNY Research Award Program.
|
| 2000-1 |
Teachers
as Researchers, Teachers as Writers: A Developmental Research
Group in Realistic Mathematics Education (PI: Catherine Fosnot,
Co-PI/Director: Betina Zolkower), awarded by NSF as supplemental
funds to Mathematics in the City ($74,000)
|
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
|
| August 2005-07-05 |
“La
problemática de la (re)contextualización
en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la
matemática.” Paper co-presented with Fernanda Gallego at
the Congreso Provincial “Contexto y Prácticas Aulicas.”
Mendoza, Argentina.
|
| March 2005 |
“A
social-semiotic approach to interaction in heterogeneous
mathematics classrooms.”
Seminar at the Mathematics Education Research-Faculty-Led
Seminar Series, CUNY Graduate
Center
. Co-presenter: Sam Shreyar.
|
| December 2004 |
“A
social-semiotic approach to interaction in heterogeneous
mathematics classrooms.” Paper presented at the Emergent
Scholarship in Urban Education Conference,
CUNY Graduate
Center
.
Co-presenter: Sam Shreyar.
|
| August 2004 |
“La educación
matemática realista. Principios en que se sustenta.” Presentation
at the Winter Institute of
Didactics of Mathematics (
Buenos Aires,
Argentina).
Co-presenters:
Ana Bressan and Fernanda Gallego.
|
| February 2004 |
“Una mirada a la didáctica realista de la
matemática a través de experiencias de aula de docentes y
capacitadores.” Co-presenters: Ana Bressan and Fernanda Gallego.
Presented at the Conference: Mente y Cultura: Cambios
representacionales en el aprendizaje. Centro Regional
Universitario Bariloche de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue y
la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
|
| July 2002 |
“La relevancia de los contextos en la resolución
de problems de matemática.” Presented
at the 4th Meeting of the Association of Mathematics Education of
the Southern Cone (SOAREM),
Buenos Aires
,
Argentina
,
with teachers from the Grupo Patagónico de Didáctica de la Matemática.
|
| November
2001 |
“Shortest
pathways: The centrality of writing for the collective production
of a mathematics text in a 6th grade classroom,” with Sam
Shreyar. Presentation at the 20th PANAMA Conference: Interaction
in Mathematics Classrooms, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands
|
| April
2000 |
“Bookmarks:
A realistic geometry lesson in a k/1 classroom,” with Ginger
Hanlon (teacher). Presentation at the Conference on Documentation
and Design, Early
Childhood
Laboratory
School
(UMass, Amherst).
|
| July
1999 |
“Mathematizing
reality, mathematizing mathematics.” Lecture at the
University
of
Comahue,
Bariloche (Río Negro Province
,
Argentina.
|
| February
1999 |
“Realistic
geometry: Classroom and in-service activities.” Presentation at
the Meeting with Pierre van Hiele on Levels of Thinking, NY
Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation in
Mathematics, Science, and Technology (
Brooklyn
College
).
|
| April
1998 |
“On
the use of picture-based contexts to facilitate mathematizing in
the multiplication strand.” Presentation at the 76th NCTM Annual
Meeting (
Washington
D.C.
|
| November
1997 |
“Children's
productions.” Poster session for the Annual Conference of the
Association for Constructivist Teaching (ACT) (
City
College
,
CUNY).
|
| October
1997 |
"Helping
elementary school teachers guide students’ mathematical
reinventions." Presentation at the
Reading
and Mathematics Conference for SURR Schools (NYC).
|
| October
1997 |
“Math
fictions: Elementary mathematics education and the modern
pedagogical paradigm.” Presentation at the 22nd Meeting of the
Social Science History Association (
Washington,D.C.
|
| June
1997 |
“In
search of a didactics of mathematics, beyond the prescription not
to tell.” Presentation at the 4th International Misconceptions
Seminar: From Misconceptions to Constructed Understanding (
Cornell
University
,
Department of Education).
|
| April
1997 |
“Using
contexts to facilitate the learning of mathematics” (with Willem
Uittenbogaard, Maarten Dolk, and Mathematics in the City
teachers). Mini-conference held at the 75th Annual Meeting of the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Minneapolis).
|
| May
1994 |
“What
is culture to your ears is noise to theirs.” Presentation at the
Technoscience and Cyberculture Conference, Center for Cultural
Studies (CUNY,
Graduate
Center).
|
| April
1994 |
“Culture
as noise: Relations of time and money in the practices of eight
Latino schoolchildren.” Presentation at the 1994 Annual Meeting
of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans,
LA.
|
SYMPOSIA, INSTITUTES, AND WORKSHOPS
|
| August 2004 |
Mathematics Institute for Leadership in Education
(MILE), co-taught with Laurie Rubel.
A five-day seminar for secondary school mathematics
teachers that is part of the MetroMath
Center
for Teaching and Learning.
|
| August 2003 |
“Using M.A.K. Halliday’s functional grammar for
analyzing transcripts of mathematics
lessons with an eye to describing modalities of teacher
orchestration of whole-class conversations.” A three-day seminar
for the GPDM, co-facilitated with Sam Shreyar.
|
| July
2001 |
“Contributions
of realistic mathematics education (RME) to geometry instruction
in grades K-9th.” Four-day Winter Institute for elementary and
middle school teachers, organized by the GPDM (San Carlos de
Bariloche).
|
| June
2000 |
“On
the teaching of written algorithms, ratio and proportion,
fractions, decimals, and percentages: Contributions of RME.”
Four-day Winter Institute for elementary and middle school
teachers, organized by the GPDM.
|
| July
1999 |
“Toward
closing the gap between school mathematics and common sense.”
Four-day Winter Institute for elementary and middle-school
teachers (San Carlos de Bariloche).
|
| April
1999 |
“Look
to the numbers to decide what makes sense! Using strings of bare
number computation problems in order to develop flexible mental
math strategies.” Workshop at the 77th NCTM Annual Meeting (San Francisco).
|
| December
1997 |
“Facilitating
student reinvention of algebra in middle-school classrooms.”
One-day workshop at Jacob Riis Upper School of PS 126, District 2
(
Manhattan
).
Workshop co-facilitated with Yeuk-Sze Leong, middle school
teacher.
|
| November
1997 |
“Using
strings of bare number computation problems to develop efficient
strategies for addition and subtraction.” Workshop held at the
Annual Conference of the Association for Constructivist Teaching.
(
City
College
,
CUNY).
|
| November
1997 |
“Gathering
evidence: From word problems to wor(l)d problems.” Workshop held
at the Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference (
Graduate
Center
,
CUNY).
|
RELATED ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
|
| Sept.
04-Present |
Consultant/Professional
Developer for secondary mathematics teachers at the Manhattan
Bridges
High
School (Region 9).
|
| Feb.
2000-Present |
Co-director,
with Ana Bressan, of the Grupo Patagónico de Didactica de la
Matemática (GPDM), a developmental research/study group of
elementary and middle school teachers in San Carols de Bariloche,
Río Negro Province, Argentina.
|
| Aug.
01-May 02 |
Consultant/Professional
Developer for middle school mathematics teachers in Community
School District 15 (Brooklyn). Classroom visits, co-teaching, unit
training (Mathematics in
Context curriculum series), and development of middle school
math education staff developers/teacher leaders for the District.
|
| July
99-May 01 |
Consultant/Professional
Developer for the Mathematics in Context Consulting Group, a
network of mathematics educators seeking to support and promote
mathematics reform through the implementation of Mathematics
in Context.
|
| Sept.
98-May 99 |
Consultant/Professional
Developer for middle school mathematics teachers (District 15, Brooklyn).
Facilitated biweekly a study group of teachers and staff
developers aimed at increasing teachers’ content knowledge in
the context of standard-based reform initiatives and help them
implement the Mathematics in Context curriculum series.
|
| Nov.
97-July 98 |
Consultant/Evaluator
of the Real World Mathematics Initiative Teacher-Led Study Group
Project, a professional development program for middle school
teachers, jointly organized by New Visions for Public Schools and
the NYC Board of Education.
|
| Aug.
97- June 98 |
Consultant,
Mathematics Initiative,
Community
School
District
Two (
Manhattan
).
In-service professional development for middle school mathematics
teachers in the Jacob Riis Upper School of PS 126 in
Lower
Manhattan.
|
| Sept.
95-June 97 |
Consultant,
New York State System Initiative, Urban Network Project for
Mathematics, Science, and Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. In-service professional development for elementary
school mathematics teachers.
|
OTHER SKILLS
|
| Languages:
|
Native
Spanish speaker, working knowledge of French and Portuguese.
|
| Technology: |
Windows
95/99, spreadsheets, Internet, Blackboard, Geometry Sketchpad, and
use of videotapes and CD-ROMs for professional development.
|
| Arts:
|
Amateur
photographer.
|
MEMBERSHIPS
|
| Grupo
Patagónico de Didáctica de la Matemática |
| MetroMath:
The Center for Mathematics in America’s
Cities |
| National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics |
| Mathematical
Association of
America |
| American
Education Research Association |
|
| 03/06 |
|