Virginia J. Flood (she/her)

My research in the learning sciences uses ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to investigate the role of the body in teaching and learning mathematics, computer science, and science. I am especially interested in (1) embodied communication (in particular, gesture) in STEM education and (2) ways STEM educational environments can intentionally incorporate the body into teaching and learning.

Embodied Interaction in STEM (EIS) Laboratory Website

• PhD, University of California, Berkeley (2020)
• MST, University of Maine (2012)
• BS, University of Southern Maine (2007)

• 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;
• Dissertation Fellowship; National Academy of Education/Spencer; 2018-09-01;

• 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.
• Flood, V. J. (2021). The secret multimodal life of IREs: Looking more closely at representational gestures in a familiar questioning sequence. Linguistics and Education, 63.
• Flood, V. J., Shvarts, A., & Abrahamson, D. (2020). Teaching with embodied learning technologies for mathematics: Responsive teaching for embodied learning, ZDM Mathematics Education, (52)7, 1307-1331.

• Flood, V. J. Wang, X. C., & Sheridan, M. (2022) Embodied responsive teaching for supporting computational thinking in early childhood. In Oshima, J., Mochizuki, T. Hayashi, Y. (Eds.) Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences ICLS 2022. (Full paper) International Society of the Learning Sciences. 855-862. *Winner ICLS Best Paper Award*

• Flood, V. J. (2021) Exploring gesture as a dialogic resource in STEM education. Cognitive Science Colloquium, University at Buffalo, SUNY;
• V. J. Flood. “Tuning in to conversations of gesture in STEM.” Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE) Colloquium, University of Maine, Orono, ME, April, 2021.;

• Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B. W. (2020). How physics students re-use gestures in collaborative knowledge building. In D. Keifert (Chair), Analytical designs: Goodwin’s substrates as a tool for studying learning. In Gresalfi, M. and Horn, I. S. (Eds.), The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020, Volume 3 (pp. 1471-1478). Nashville, Tennessee: International Society of the Learning Sciences.;
• Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B.W. (2021). Responding to STEM students’ gestured candidate responses. In E. de Vries, J. Ahn, & Y. Hod (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 2021;
• Wang, X. C., Flood, V. J., Cady, A. (2021). Computational thinking through body and ego syntonicity: Young children’s embodied sense-making using a programming toy. In E. de Vries, J. Ahn, & Y. Hod (Eds.), Proceedings of the 15th International Conference of the Learning Sciences – ICLS 2021. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 2021 *Nominated for Best Paper Award*;

• DiGEST-PHYSICS: Dialogic gesture in collaborative sense-making in physics; Federal; NSF (EHR Core); Awarded; (07/01/2022-06/30/2025)