معرفی
Katherine E. Lewis is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington, specializing in Special Education with a focus on high-incidence disabilities teacher education (SPED-TEP) within the Learning Sciences & Human Development area. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.Sc. in Multimedia Systems from Trinity College, Dublin, and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Lewis's research fundamentally centers on designing accessible educational contexts, particularly for students with disabilities. Her primary research line focuses on students with mathematics learning disabilities (dyscalculia), where she rejects the deficit model in favor of a disability studies approach. She believes individuals are disabled not by neurological differences but by inaccessible spaces and contexts. Her work identifies how students with mathematics learning disabilities develop unconventional understandings of mathematical representations and compensatory strategies to gain access. Her second research line involves designing educational supports for foster and adoptive parents, including the resource website foster-edu.com. A third emerging area examines how American Sign Language can support Deaf students' understanding of mathematics concepts.
Her publications reveal a consistent theme of bridging mathematics education and special education, challenging traditional deficit perspectives on learning disabilities. Her work emphasizes designing accessible instruction through detailed analysis of students' unconventional mathematical reasoning rather than attempting to remediate perceived cognitive deficits. She has developed innovative research methods, including clinical interviews and video analysis of one-on-one tutoring sessions, to document students' unique approaches to mathematics.
- Linking Research and Practice Outstanding Publication Award from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2018
- National Academy of Education - Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015
- Early Career Publication Award of the Special Interest Group on Research in Mathematics, 2015
- Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, 2010
Dr. Lewis has created research-recaps to make her work accessible, including visual summaries and videos explaining her reconceptualization of mathematical learning disabilities as differences rather than deficits. She also maintains the research website klewismath.com and the resource site foster-edu.com for foster and adoptive parents. Her personal experience with dyslexia informs her conceptualization of learning disabilities as cognitive differences rather than irreconcilable deficits, driving her commitment to designing accessible educational contexts.
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