Betina Zolkower
Associate Professor
Education, Secondary
Location: 2414b James Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x3954
Fax: 718.951.4816
Email:
Native Argentinean Betina Zolkower has been living in New York as a permanent resident since 1986. She is an associate professor in the Middle Childhood Mathematics Program. Zolkower has a master's in educational studies from the University of Buenos Aires, and two years of graduate coursework in physics and mathematics, also at the University of Buenos Aires. She co-directs a study group of mathematics teachers and teacher educators in the south of Argentina (Grupo Patagónico de Didáctica de la Matemática).
Education:
Ph.D., CUNY Graduate Center - 1996 (Sociology)
Areas of Expertise:
Zolkower's current research focuses on how teachers mediate whole-class conversations within the context of nonroutine mathematical problem solving. Her views on math instruction, curriculum design, teacher training and classroom research articulate a Vygotyskian perspective on teaching and learning, the realistic approach to math instruction (under development in the Netherlands since the late 1960s around the work of Freudenthal), and selected tools from M.A.K. Halliday's functional grammar.
Books and Publications
Zolkower, B. and A. Bressan. "Educación matemática realista." Educación Matemática: Aportes a la Formación Docente Desde Distintos Enfoques Teóricos. Eds. Marcel Pochulu and Mabel Rodríguez. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Universidad de General Sarmiento. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2012
Zolkower, B. and E. de Freitas. "Mathematical meaning-making in whole-class conversation: Functional grammatical analysis of a paradigmatic text." Language and Dialogue 1.3. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2012
de Freitas, E. and B. Zolkower. "Developing teacher capacity to explore non-routine problems through a focus on the social semiotics of mathematics classroom discourse." Research in Mathematics Education 13.3: 229-47. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2011
de Freitas, E. and B. Zolkower. "The Social Semiotics of Mathematics Classroom Discourse: Developing Teacher Capacity to Explore Non-routine Problems in Urban Classrooms." Proceedings of epiSTEME 4 -- International Conference to Review Research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education. Eds. S. Chunawala and M. Kharatmal. India: Macmillan. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Haydar, H. and B. Zolkower. "Making the Study of Non-routine Problem Solving a Mathematics Classroom Routine: A Lesson Study Group for Beginning Secondary School Teachers." JIEEM (Brazil). (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2010
Perez, Silvia, Ana Bressan and Betina Zolkower. ?Ya tenemos las soluciones. ¿Y ahora que hacemos?, 12(ntes), November. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2010
Shreyar, S., B. Zolkower and S. Perez. "Thinking Aloud Together: A 6th-grade Teacher's Mediation of a Whole-class Conversation About Percents." Educational Studies in Mathematics 73: 21-53. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Hanna Haydar. "Beginning Teachers and Non-routine Mathematics Problems: A Lesson Study Group in an Urban Context." Proceedings of the Thirty-first Annual Meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Atlanta. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Silvia Perez. "El rompecabezas de 19 piezas." Novedades Educativas (Buenos Aires), October. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2009
Rubel, L. and B. Zolkower. "Arranging Blocks, Climbing Stairs and Beyond: Learning About the Significance of Mathematical Representations." Mathematics Teacher 101.5: 340-44. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2007
Zolkower, Betina and Sam Shreyar. "A Teacher's Mediation of a Thinking Aloud Discussion in a 6th-grade Mathematics Classroom." Educational Studies in Mathematics 65: 177-202. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2007
Zolkower, Betina and Ana Bressan. "La corriente realista de didática de la matemática: Experiencias de un grupo de docentes y capacitadores." Yupana: Revista de Matemática de la Universidad del Litoral (Argentina). (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006
Zolkower, Betina, Ana Bressan and Silvia Perez. "Las imágenes y las preguntas en la escuela." Novedades Educativas 182, February: 22-26. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2006
Zolkower, Betina, Ana Bressan and Fernanda Gallego. "Los principios de la educación matemática realista." Reflecciones Teóricas para la Educación Matemática. Eds. Humberto Alagia, Ana Bressan and Patricia Sadovsky. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Libros del Zorzal. 69-98. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2004
Zolkower, Betina, Pérez, da Valle and Ana Bressan. "La relevancia de los contextos en la resolución de situaciones-problema: Una experiencia para docentes y sus capacitadores." Paradigma (Venezuela): 59-94. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2003
Zolkower, Betina and Sam Shreyar. "Shortest Pathways: Interaction and Semiotic Apprenticeship in a 6th-grade Classroom." Proceedings of the 20th PANAMA Conference, Freudenthal Institute, The Netherlands: 141-62. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2002
"Math Fictions: What Really Solves the Problem?" Technoscience and Cyberculture. Eds. Stanley Aronowitz et al. New York and London: Routledge. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 1995
Creative Work
"Octagons Found in a Chair in Buenos Aires" photograph published in Found Math, a section of the online newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America. 2010
Responsive Research Network MSP (Hunter College, CUNY), for "Non-Routine Mathematics Problems and Beginning Middle School Teachers: An Exploratory Inquiry on a Lesson Study Group." H. Haydar and B. Zolkower, co-principal investigators. $15,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
"Whole-group Conversations in Mathematics Classrooms: The Functional Grammar of a 'Thinking Aloud Together' Text." Urban Science Education Research Seminar (USER-S). CUNY Graduate Center. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
"Visual Proof" photograph published in Found Math, a section of the online newsletter of the Mathematical Association of America. www.maa.org/FoundMath/
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Zolkower, B. and H. Haydar. Teacher Induction Summer Pilot - Phase II. Funds provided by the City University of New York for engaging 12 beginning mathematics teachers in a one-month lesson study group. $16,600. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
Tow Travel Fellowship, for travelling to Bariloche, Argentina, to work on the project "Whole-Group Interaction as Teacher-guided Interpersonal Gateway Into Mathematical Meaning-Making: An Investigation in Two 6th-grade Classrooms." (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
Zolkower, B. and H. Haydar. Teacher Induction Summer Pilot - Phase I. Funds provided by the City University of New York for engaging 12 beginning mathematics teachers in a one-month lesson study group. $13,500. (Grants and Fellowships) 2007
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
EDUC 195c: Knowing and Learning in Math and Science. CALTEACH, University of California, Berkeley. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2011
Zolkower, Betina and Elizabeth de Freitas. "Functional Grammar Tools for Studying Whole-class Conversations in Mathematics Classrooms" symposium. NCTM Research Pre-session. San Diego. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
Zolkower, Betina and Elizabeth de Freitas. "What's in a Text: Engaging Mathematics Teachers in the Study of Whole-class Conversations." 6th Conference on Mathematics Education and Society. Berlin. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"From the Bottom Up: The Function of Contexts, Tools and Texts in Progressive Mathematizing." Realistic Mathematics Education Conference. Freudenthal Institute-US, University of Colorado, Boulder. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Dor Abrahamson. "Studying Paradigmatic Didactical-mathematical Situations: Design and Implementation of an Experimental Graduate-level Course for Pre-service Mathematics Teachers and Doctoral Students." Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Elizabeth de Freitas. "A Social Semiotics Model for Mathematics Lesson Study Groups" roundtable. American Educational Research Association. San Diego. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Elizabeth de Freitas. "Disrupting the Diagram: Semiotic Tools for Teachers" poster. NCTM Research Pre-session. Washington, D.C., April. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Elizabeth de Freitas. "Engaging Beginning Mathematics Teachers in the Study of Whole-class Interaction Texts Within a Lesson Study Group Context: Tasks, Results and Insights From an Exploratory Study" poster. DR-K12 PI Meeting. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Zolkower, Betina, Laurie Rubel, Hanna Haydar and Michael Meagher. "Mathematics Education Research for Urban Schools: Examples and Directions" symposium. NCTM Research Pre-session, Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
Zolkower, Betina and Sam Shreyar. "Thinking Aloud Together: The Role of a Mathematics Teacher in Mediating a Whole-class Discussion About Percents." American Education Research Association. New York, March 24-28. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"Thinking Aloud Together: The Teacher's Role in Mediating Whole Class Interaction in the Mathematics Classroom." Winter Institute of Specialized Didactics at the University of San Martin, Buenos Aires (Argentina). http://www.unsam.edu.ar/escuelas/humanidades/escuela_invierno/programa.htm. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
Zolkower, Betina and Ana Bressan. "Enseñando a matematizar, aprendiendo a didactizar: Ideas y experiencias en torno a la capacitación de docentes de matemática." Conferencia de la REM-UMA. Bahía Blanca, Argentina. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2006
"La problematica de la (re)contextualizacion en la enseñanza-aprendizaje de la matemática." Congreso Provincial Contexto y Prácticas Aulicas. Mendoza, Argentina. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2005
