Virginia J. Flood (she/her)
Assistant Professor
LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION
Specialty/Research Focus
Learning Sciences, STEM Education, Classroom Discourse, Embodiment & Multimodality
Professional Summary:
My research in the learning sciences uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to investigate the role of the body in teaching and learning in STEM disciplines. I am especially interested in embodied communication (in particular, gesture) in STEM education. I currently lead two NSF-funded projects: (1) DiGEST Physics which investigates how physics students use gesture during collaborative problem solving and (2) a CAREER Award to investigate how physics instructors are responsive to students' gestures in active, collaborative learning courses. I direct the Embodied Interaction in STEM (EIS) Lab.
Education and Training:
- PhD, University of California, Berkeley, Learning Sciences & Human Development (2020)
- MST, University of Maine (2012)
- BS, University of Southern Maine, Biochemistry (2007)
Awards and Honors:
- STAR Faculty Research Award (22'-23'); Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo; 2023-05-12;
- International Conference of the Learning Sciences Best Paper Award; International Society of the Learning Sciences; 2022-06-10;
- Spencer Dissertation Fellowship; National Academy of Education/Spencer; 2018-09-01;
Recent Publications:
Journal Article:
- Booth, E. T., Flood, V. J., & Harrer, B. W. (2025). Using representational gesture to enact instants in collaborative problem solving in physics. Physical Review Physics Education Research.
- Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B. W. (2023) Kinetically-held questions: Representational gesture post-stroke holds in whole-class interactions in STEM. Linguistics and Education.
- Flood, V. J., Harrer, B. W. (2022) Teachers’ responsiveness to students’ gestured candidate responses in STEM whole-class interactions. Classroom Discourse.
Book Chapter:
- Flood, V. J. (2024). Embodiment in Education. In L. Shapiro & S. Spaulding, (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Embodied Cognition. Routledge.
:
- Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B. W. (2023). How kinetically-held gestures support collaborative problem solving in physics. In Blikstein, P., Van Aalst, J., Kizito, R., & Brennan, K. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2023 (pp. 1522-1525). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Recent Grants:
Grant:
- CAREER: Embodied Responsive Teaching in Undergraduate Physics (ERT-UP); Federal Government; NSF; Awarded; (10/01/2025-09/30/2030)
- DiGEST-PHYSICS: Dialogic gesture in collaborative sense-making in physics; Federal Government; NSF (ECR Core); Awarded; (07/01/2022-06/30/2025)