Victoria S Akin

I am interested in mathematics education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Currently, I am focused on the retention of women in STEM, graduate student teacher training, and undergraduate experience in introductory classrooms.

I am involved in an interdisciplinary research project focused on the retention of women in STEM fields and the effect of intervention programs on girls' attitudes and beliefs about math. Together with Sophia Santillan (Pratt Mechanical and Materials Science), and Lauren Valentino (UNC Sociology). I am running the sixth year of an outreach program and research study, Girls Exploring Math (GEM). The program engages middle school girls from Durham Public Schools in math workshops. The program combines mathematical problem solving with age-appropriate discussions about the impact of social constructs on self-concept. Preliminary data show modest increases in confidence and growth mindset among participants. Spatial reasoning is one indicator of future STEM success in which women tend to under-perform compared to their male counterparts. However, work by Sheryl Sorby has demonstrated the positive effect of targeted interventions on spatial reasoning skills. Our recent directions focus on "bias literacy" and "preparation for bias" as potential strategies of STEM extracurricular programming that could impact girls' decisions to take math classes and major in STEM. In addition, Santillan, Valentino and I are conducting research to investigate the causes that U.S. adults typically attribute to the gender gap in STEM and how those attributions may or may not correlate with other demographic factors.

I am interested in professional development for mathematics graduate students (preparing new graduate students to teach). Together with Emily Braley (Johns Hopkins) and Jack Bookman I have documented the host of professional development activities run by the Duke Math Department: https://math.duke.edu/sites/math.duke.edu/files/Duke_GTAPD_course_design.pdf. Together with Shira Viel, Jack Bookman, and Kristen Gerondelis, I have begun collecting data to assess the impact of the Duke professional development program on mathematics graduate student teaching. In particular, we would like to identify the aspects of the training program that graduate students perceive as most helpful. Our long term goals include identifying the activities that are correlated with teaching success.

I am participating in a Duke faculty learning community with the goal of designing and implementing more inclusive assessments. Together with Shira Viel, I have explored the evolution of grading systems in the Duke first-year calculus courses. 

Currently, with Shira Viel, Sarah Schott, and Sophia Santillan, I am collecting data on the undergraduate expeirence in introductory Caclulus courses at Duke. My current project with Rebecca Noonan Heale (Utah University) aims to better understand the factors that contribute to "whole-class discussions" in college math courses.