Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School

College of Science and Mathematics

Department/Program

Mathematics

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Steven Greenstein

Committee Member

Eileen Fernández

Committee Member

Douglas Larkin

Abstract

This study develops Responsive Design Pedagogy (RDP), a conceptual and analytic model of teacher responsiveness in design-based environments, to account for how responsiveness emerges through interactions among students, tools, and tasks. Although responsiveness has been widely studied in mathematics education, limited attention has been given to responsiveness within mathematical design activity and to how teachers attend to the multiple modes through which students express their mathematical ideas. Addressing these gaps, this qualitative study examined one teacher’s enactment of responsiveness in a Learning-by-Design classroom where students designed and used 3D-printed mathematical tools. Data sources included classroom video, student design artifacts, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes. The analysis focused on teacher responsiveness to students’ emerging mathematical ideas expressed in all their various modes. The findings contribute to a model of Responsive Design Pedagogy that conceptualizes responsiveness as the dynamic and relational coordination of design environments, multimodal student expressions, and teacher response, offering a framework for supporting mathematical learning in design-based classrooms. Implications for teacher education, curriculum design, and maker-centered mathematics learning are discussed.

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