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Dr. Marta Kobiela

Title: 
Associate Professor
Dr. Marta Kobiela
Contact Information
Email address: 
marta.kobiela [at] mcgill.ca
Phone: 
514-398-2451
Address: 

Education Building
3700 rue McTavish
Montréal, Quebec H3A 1Y2
Canada

Division: 
Educational Leadership Supervisors
Educational Studies (Ph.D.) Supervisors
Education and Society Supervisors
Department: 
Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE)
Area(s): 
STEM Education
Areas of expertise: 
  • Mathematics learning and teaching, especially geometry and spatial mathematics
  • Learning of disciplinary and professional practice and reasoning
  • Teacher education and teacher educator practice and learning
  • Design-based research methodology
Biography: 

Dr. Kobiela is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE) and is a former Associate for McGiill's Faculty of Education. Dr. Kobiela’s research focuses broadly on understanding how individuals learn disciplinary and professional practices and the environments that support their learning. She is particularly interested in the learning of visual practices through interactions with materials and people.

In one line of work, Dr. Kobiela investigates how to develop students’ reasoning and “seeing” to cultivate authorship and agency in mathematics, especially in contexts involving geometry and spatial mathematics, because of the belief that they have particular material and bodily affordances for supporting students’ reasoning and visualization. Moreover, space and geometry are foundational to other STEM disciplines, so that reasoning about space makes other forms of STEM more accessible to students of all ages.

In another line of work, Dr. Kobiela investigates how to support the development of pre-service teachers, teachers, and teacher educators in engaging in the professional practices of teaching and facilitation, in the context of mathematics education. Part of her research in this area seeks to characterize the interactional practices that support professional learning. A second part of this research focuses on characterizing professional noticing within moments of interaction.

Research Projects:

  • Partnering to Support Cross-School Coherency: Examining Students' Transitions from Elementary to Secondary Mathematics (SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant)

  • Supporting Prospective Teachers to Engage Students in Constructing and Reasoning about Mathematical Definitions (Fonds de Recherche Québec Société et Culture)

  • Examining Facilitation Practices and Professional Vision of Coaches of Prospective Teachers (SSHRC Insight Development Grant & McGill Internal Funding)

  • Projet ARIM: Processus de Rapprochement des Pratiques D'enseignement de Mathématiques pour Favoriser un Passage plus Harmonieux pour les Élèves lors de Transitions Scolaires (Fonds de Recherche Québec Société et Culture)

Degree(s): 

Ph.D., Teaching & Learning (Math & Science Education), Vanderbilt University

M.S., B.S., Mathematics, Texas A&M University

Selected publications: 

Kobiela, M., Iacono, H., Cho, S., & Chandrasekhar, V. (2022). .

Kobiela, M., & Lehrer, R. (2019). Supporting dynamic conceptions of area and its measure. Mathematical Thinking and Learning. 21(3), 178-206.

Kobiela, M., Jackson, K. J., Shahan, E., & Savard, A. (2018). Sorting to develop definitional reasoning. Teaching Children Mathematics. 24(4). 250-257.

Kobiela, M., & Lehrer, R. (2015). . 46(4), 423-454.

Lehrer, R., Kobiela, M., & Weinberg, P. J. (2013). Cultivating inquiry about space in a middle school mathematics classroom. The International Journal on Mathematics Education (ZDM), 45(3), 365-376.

Lehrer, R., Kobiela, M., & Weinberg, P. J. (2013). Cultivating inquiry about space in a middle school mathematics classroom. The International Journal on Mathematics Education (ZDM), 45(3), 365-376.

Graduate supervision: 

Prospective graduate students should review Dr. Kobiela's research projects listed as part of the Visualization, Interaction, & Reasoning Lab and contact Dr. Kobiela directly to enquire about grad studies and supervision.

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