Faculty Research Overview

>> Steinthorsdottir, Olof Bjorg

Overview

Olof Steinthorsdottir studies the teaching and learning of mathematics. Her research interests include students’ understanding of mathematics, especially their understanding of whole numbers, fractions and proportion, and how gender, class, race and culture impact students’ learning experiences and achievement.  She is currently working on a research program in Iceland studying how pre-school students come to understand numbers and operations. Her goal is to impact both the pedagogical practices of pre-school teachers and to encourage the development of systematic mathematical work in pre-school. Another emerging research focus is how mathematical understanding relates to race and gender in the Latino community in North Carolina.

Selected Projects

Gender and Mathematics in Iceland

Project Director: Olof Bjorg Steinthorsdottir, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education

When the results of the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were published, it became evident that Iceland was the only one of the 57 participating countries in which there was a significant gender difference in mathematical literacy in favor of girls. 

Professor Steinthorsdottir is investigating this finding by studying classroom environment, teacher/student interaction patterns, and students’ and teachers’ perceptions of mathematics in Iceland.

PISA is an internationally standardized assessment that was jointly developed by the participating countries and is administered every three years to15-year-olds in schools.

The survey was implemented in 43 countries in the first assessment in 2000, in 41 countries in the second assessment in 2003 and in 57 countries in the third assessment in 2006. To date, 62 countries have signed up to participate in the fourth assessment in 2009.

Tests are typically administered to between 4,500 and 10,000 students in each country.

Young Children, Mathematics and Numeracy in Iceland

Project Director: Olof Bjorg Steinthorsdottir, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education

Professor Steinthorsdottir is working with pre-school teachers in Iceland to investigate how pre-school students in Iceland come to understand numbers and operations. Specifically, she is studying students’ understanding of mathematics and how teachers can use that understanding to make instructional decisions.

She is seeking to impact both the pedagogical practices of pre-school teachers and to encourage the development of systematic mathematical work in pre-schools. 

The goal is to make mathematics more structured and visible in the teachers’ work with four- and five-year-old children in Icelandic pre-schools.