Susan Baker Empson is an American scholar of
mathematics education whose work includes
longitudinal studies of children's mathematical development, the use of
Cognitively Guided Instruction
Cognitively Guided Instruction is "a professional development program based on an integrated program of research on (a) the development of students' mathematical thinking; (b) instruction that influences that development; (c) teachers' knowledge a ...
in mathematics education, analyses of childhood understanding of the concept of
fraction
A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...
s, and research on the
professional development
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning
Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and ...
of mathematics educators. She is a professor emerita in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the
University of Missouri, where she held the Richard Miller endowed chair of mathematics education.
Education and career
Empson majored in art at
Queens College, Charlotte
The Queens University of Charlotte is a private university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has approximately 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students through the College of Arts and Sciences, the McColl School of Business, the Wayland H. Cato, ...
in
North Carolina, with a minor in mathematics; she graduated
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
in 1983. After two years teaching mathematics in
Morocco through the
Peace Corps, she
became a mathematics teacher at
A. Philip Randolph Campus High School in
New York City in 1987. While in New York, she also went to
Teachers College, Columbia University for a master's degree in mathematics education and a minor in educational technology, completed in 1988.
In 1990, she moved to the
University of Wisconsin–Madison for continuing graduate study in mathematics education. She completed her Ph.D. there in 1994, with a minor in cognitive science in education. Her dissertation, ''The Development of Children's Fraction Thinking in a First-grade Classroom'', was supervised by Thomas P. Carpenter. She also worked at the university as a lecturer from 1993 to 1995, and stayed on as a post-doctoral researcher from 1994 to 1996.
In 1996, she took a faculty position at the
University of Texas at Austin, as an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She remained there until 2016, progressing through the faculty ranks, until retiring in 2016 as
professor emerita
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
. In that year she moved to the
University of Missouri, as a professor in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum, Richard Miller endowed chair of mathematics education, and associate director of the Institute for Reimagining and Researching STEM Education. She has since retired again, as professor emerita.
Selected publications
Books
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Articles
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empson, Susan
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American women mathematicians
Mathematics educators
Queens University of Charlotte alumni
Teachers College, Columbia University alumni
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
University of Texas at Austin faculty
University of Missouri faculty