Faculty Bio

Bona Kang

Assistant Professor of Education

Education

• B.A. Cognitive Science, University of California Berkeley
• M.A., Ph.D. Education (Development in Mathematics and Science), University of California Berkeley

About

Bona Kang teaches elementary math methods, field experiences, Psychological Foundations in Education, and Teaching for Equity and Social Justice. Her K-6 classroom experience includes teaching-research partnerships with a college-affiliated lab school in western Massachusetts and multi-classroom case studies and efficacy studies in diverse public schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her research interests focus on elementary school children’s cognition and development in mathematics and her teaching interests include the learning sciences, elementary school education, and mathematics education. This work builds on broader interests in fostering future educators’ ideas about designing inclusive and equitable learning environments that promote student agency and help develop metacognitive and collaboration skills.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Murata, A., Siker, J., Kang, B., Baldinger, E., Kim, H-J., Scott, M., & Lanouette, K. (2017). Math talk and student strategy trajectories: The case of two first grade classrooms. Cognition and Instruction, 35(4), 290-316. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2017.1362408
• Saxe, G. B., de Kirby, K., Kang, B., Le, M., & Schneider, A. (2015). Studying cognition through time in a classroom community: The interplay between “everyday” and “scientific concepts.” Human Development, 58(1), 5-44. https://doi.org/10.1159/000371560
• Saxe, G. B., de Kirby, K., Le, M., Sitabkhan, Y., & Kang, B. (2015). Understanding learning across lessons in classroom communities: A multi-leveled analytic approach. In A. Bikner-Ahsbahs, C. Knipping, & N. Presmeg (Eds.), Approaches to qualitative research in mathematics education: Examples of methodology and methods (pp. 253-318). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9181-6_11

Peer-Reviewed Presentations

• Kang, B. (2018, April). Evaluating children's developing tool and measurement target unit coordinations on number line problems. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York, NY.
• Kang, B. (2017, June). Are children more precise when they transform tools to mediate linear measurement problem solving?: 2nd and 4th graders’ use of rulers and paper strips to locate numbers on number lines. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco, CA.
• Kang, B., & Murata, A. (2014, May). Learning with and from each other: Kindergarten and first grade number talks lesson study. In H-J. Kim (Chair), Mathematics teacher learning and development in different contexts: Investigating teachers’ communication of their practice. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco, CA.
• Murata, A., Siker, J., Kang, B., Baldinger, E., Kim, H., Scott, M., & Lanouette, K. (2014, April). Classroom group learning and individual student learning: The case of two first grade number talks lessons. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.
• Saxe, G. B., Gearhart, M., Diakow, R., Leveille Buchanan, N., Collett, J., Kang, B., De Kirby, K., & Le, M. (2013, April). Engagement in mathematical discussion: Linking practices and outcomes. Symposium presented at the 2013 Research Presession meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Denver, CO.
• Kang, B. (2012, July). Social and cognitive processes in students’ developing informal tool use in measurement. Paper presented at 12th meeting of the International Congress on Mathematical Education, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Kang, B. (2011, June). Children’ s development of informal tools: The role of sociomathematical norms in shifting strategies for linear measurement. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Berkeley, CA.
• Saxe, G. B., Gearhart, M., Earnest, D., Haldar, L. C., Kang, B., Lewis, K., McKerracher, A., Sitabkhan, Y., Zheng, Y., & Shaughnessy, M. (2010, May). Learning Mathematics through Representations: Development of a research-based curriculum on integers and fractions. Poster symposium presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, Denver, CO.

Professional Organizations

• American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
• American Educational Research Association
• International Society of the Learning Sciences
• Jean Piaget Society
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics