Virginia J. Flood

My research investigates the role of the body in mathematics, computer science, and science teaching and learning. I am especially interested in embodied communication (e.g., gesture) and educational environments and technologies that incorporate the body in STEM learning. My work in the learning sciences draws on applied linguistics, human-computer interaction, and sociocultural studies.

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

• PRODiG (Promoting Recruitment, Opportunity, Diversity, Inclusion and Growth); SUNY PRODiG program and the UB GSE; 2021-03-30;
• Dissertation Fellowship; National Academy of Education/Spencer; 2018-09-01;

• 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.
• Abrahamson, D., Flood, V. J., Miele, J. A., & Siu, Y. T. (2019). Enactivism and ethnomethodological conversation analysis as tools for expanding Universal Design for Learning: The case of visually impaired mathematics students. ZDM Mathematics Education, 51(2), 291-303.
• Flood, V. J. (2018). Multimodal revoicing as an interactional mechanism for connecting scientific and everyday concepts. Human Development, 61(3), 145-173.

• Flood, V. J., Shvarts, A., Abrahamson, D. (In press) Responsive teaching for embodied learning with technology. In S. Macrine & Fugate, J. (Eds.), Movement matters: How embodied cognition informs teaching and learning. MIT Press.

• 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 M. Gresalfi, M. & I. S. Horn (Eds.), The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020, Volume 2 (pp. 374-381). Nashville, TN: International Society of the Learning Sciences.;
• Flood, V. J. & Harrer, B.W. (Accepted). 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;
• Fong, M., Aalst, O. W-V., Flood, V. J., & DeLiema, D. (2020). When features become bugs: Stance-taking around refactoring in a coding classroom. In Y. Kafai (Chair), Turning bugs into learning opportunities: Understanding debugging processes, perspectives, and pedagogies. In M. Gresalfi, M. & I. S. Horn (Eds.), The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences, 14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 2020, Volume 2 (pp. 374-381). Nashville, TN: International Society of the Learning Sciences.;
• Wang, X. C., Flood, V. J., Cady, A. (Accepted). 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;