Dept of Mathematics Education seminar: 25 June 2025

[14:00-15:00] (40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A): Anna Dailey

Boston University

[aldailey@bu.edu]

Exploring AI as a tool for designing high-quality mathematics lessons

Abstract

This presentation shares an investigation on the potential of generative AI (specifically ChatGPT) to support the design of high-quality mathematics lessons. A team of mathematics educators and researchers engaged in iterative cycles of prompting ChatGPT to plan lessons, analyzing the outputs, and refining prompting strategies across a range of secondary topics. Initial AI-generated lessons tended to reflect procedural and teacher-centered approaches. Through prompt engineering and targeted follow-up questions, our team was able to elicit lessons that allowed students to take ownership of their emerging ideas, reason and justify, develop intuitive understandings of concepts, creatively problem solve, and discuss their thinking with others. In the presentation, I will share key strategies that improved lesson quality and discuss lingering challenges and implications for designing with generative AI.

[16:00-17:00]  (40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A): Prof. Carlo Tomasetto

University of Bologna

[carlo.tomasetto@unibo.it]

1995-2025: Is girls’ math performance still under stereotype threat? A diving into 30 years of research

Abstract

The term “stereotype threat” was coined  by Steele and Aronson in a seminal article released in November 1995. Since then, research using the stereotype threat model has especially flourished in the math field, demonstrating how the physiological, cognitive, and emotional responses triggered by the stereotype alleging women’s inferiority in math may hamper the performance girls and women at challenging math tasks. Recently, however, reliance on stereotype threat as a potential explanation of the underachievement of members of stigmatised groups has been called into question. In this presentation, I will outline the evolution of stereotype threat research in the math field (and beyond) at the approach of its 30^th anniversary, discuss its past and current limitations, and trace some perspectives for the near future.