About

We reside in Calgary, Alberta. In the spirit of reconciliation, we would like to honour and acknowledge Moh’kinsstis, and the traditional Treaty 7 territory and oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda (including the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations) and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland.

We encourage you to incorporate your land acknowledgement of the traditional territories where you reside.

Dr. Krista Francis is an associate professor in Educational Studies in Learning Sciences at Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.

Krista’s research into spatial reasoning has prompted a problematization of educational practices. Despite the volume of scientific evidence that teaching spatial reasoning in mathematics classrooms yields strong gains in terms of learner achievement and understanding, there is little uptake in North American classrooms. As Krista interrogated the educational practices that impeded the teaching and learning of spatial reasoning, she analyzed over 5000 learning discourses using conceptual metaphor theory. It turns out that there are only a few conceptual metaphors influencing these 5000 discourses. For instance, one of the most common – the attainment metaphor (i.e.. getting to a destination or goal) implies a uni-directional, sequenced, step-by-step approach to teaching and learning. As such, the notion of dwelling in processes that engage and develop spatial reasoning are inconsistent. The resources on this site directly attempts to address this inconsistency.

Picture of Stefan

Stefan Rothschuh is a doctoral student in mathematics education at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. His dissertation project explores high school students’ technologically enhanced embodied learning of functional relations.

Please cite this page as: Francis, K. & Rothschuh S. (2022). About. Inspiring STEM Education. https://doi.org/10.11575/6HDB-BQ48