Jeremy Bernier
Education Research
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Experience
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Interests
I would be interested in consulting on or otherwise participating in a part-time compensated basis on research projects in one or more of the following areas:
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Narrative of Research Interests and Experience
I have always been someone who has had an enthusiasm and appreciation for mathematics, and that appreciation has only grown as I've explored it further both formally and informally. At the same time, I have also always had an enthusiasm for the world of games - both digital and analog. These dual loves inform my research agenda, where I participate in a diverse array of projects within and beyond mathematics education. Research projects that I lead fall into at least one of three overlapping strands. In the first strand, playful mathematics, my research involves examining when and how the solving and design of mathematical tasks and puzzles can create playful mathematical experiences for students and support students’ learning about and participation in authentic mathematical practices. The second strand, meaningful games, involves examining when and how playing and designing games creates meaning for players & designers. Research in the final strand examines LGBTQ+ issues in STEM communities of practice and affinity spaces, such as STEM classes, professions, and hobbyist spaces; I call this strand LGBTQ+STEM. My work along all three strands is unified by a central theme: using research to examine and disrupt dehumanizing systems across technological and mathematical spaces. Moreover, across this work, I leverage knowledge from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in order to achieve a multifaceted and deeper understanding of the phenomena at play than provided by any one discipline.
Playful Mathematics
Mathematicians have attested that the pursuit of mathematical knowledge can involve a great deal of play (Holton et al., 2001; Lockhart, 2008; Su, 2020), and researchers have found evidence that play can occur in interactions with mathematical tasks at all levels of mathematical proficiency (Bloodworth et al., 2023; Sylva et al., 1976; Williams-Pierce & Thevenow-Harrison, 2021). Yet, play is an underutilized resource in mathematics classrooms at all levels, especially beyond early childhood education (Gresalfi et al., 2018). Given that classrooms in general and mathematics classrooms in particular may not always be conducive to play, to design for playful mathematics necessitates a means to evaluate whether play is occurring. Addressing this was the main thrust of my dissertation, where I used literature and data collected from clinical interviews with undergraduate students to develop a framework for identifying playful interactions in ambiguous contexts (Bernier, 2024). By the conclusion of this work, I came to a definition and associated operationalization: within a scenario, a person is playing if (1) they act freely and with agency; (2) they experience an appropriate level of challenge and/or uncertainty; and (3) they experience amusement, satisfaction, or excitement.
Alongside my dissertation, I also led a team project using design-based research (Bakker, 2018; McKenney & Reeves, 2018; Sandoval, 2014) to develop playful mathematics learning activities with the game DragonBox Algebra (Bernier et al., in preparation). This included designing and implementing an activity which incorporated game play, collaborative problem solving, and playful roles inspired by fantasy role-playing games in a seventh-grade classroom, then analyzing the outcome of that activity using qualitative and quantitative methods.
In progressing this research, I have been working closely with Dr. Eliza Gallagher and Dr. Neil Calkin on the 9x9 Project. This is a multifaceted project to develop and research curriculum and teaching using variant sudoku – a puzzle genre that combines logical reasoning, mathematical fluency, and game mechanics. I bring the lens of playful mathematics to this work. My contributions to this project include being a co-PI on multiple pending NSF grant proposals to IUSE, and AISL solicitations to bring this work to a broad swath of mathematical learning environments. In this work, we are using qualitative and quantitative methods to measure learning, affective, and identity outcomes of engaging with variant sudoku.
Finally, I am crafting a new cycle of design-based research to develop a playful algebra learning unit, building on what I learned from my earlier work. This unit will pull together design elements such as: learner agency in activity selection and completion strategies; creative fantasy roleplaying and storytelling; DragonBox Algebra; and pen-and-paper algebra tasks in order to create an immersive playful environment for learners. I anticipate collaborating with in-service middle school mathematics teachers in order to design the unit. I intend to apply for grant funding for the production of curricular materials and research into their efficacy once the research and design team is fully formed.
Meaningful Games
When a game or other playful experience is well-designed and meets a player in the right audience and mindset, it can create an experience which Salen and Zimmerman (2004) call “meaningful play.” This occurs when a game demonstrates consequences for a player’s actions in a discernable and systematic way. Under the right conditions, this play can even become “transformative” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004): where the meaning players make with the game changes some aspect of the player, the game, or the larger structures both inhabit. These are the sorts of experiences which good games generate, and these experiences are worthy of study.
My work in this strand includes: examining how the play and simultaneous redesign of flawed board games can support engagement in design thinking in multiple contexts (Bernier et al., 2024); analyzing the design of and learners’ interactions with DragonBox Algebra (Bernier et al., in preparation); comparing problem-solving strategies used when interacting with pen-and-paper and digital game-based linear algebra tasks (Bernier & Zandieh, 2024); and examining queer representation in the Assassin’s Creed franchise (Root-Williams et al., 2024).
My present and future work with games in the playful mathematics strand overlaps into this strand. Additionally, I am consulting on an NSF grant pending before the DRK-12 solicitation this fall exploring how an agentic augmented reality learning experience can support students learning about and enacting agency around climate change policy. I will also continue conducting analyses of individual commercial games.
LGBTQ+STEM
In STEM spaces, LGBTQ+ folks are subject to challenges and discrimination not faced by their cisgender heterosexual colleagues (Nelson et al., 2022; Voigt, 2022). At the same time, attitudes towards LGBTQ+ folks are rapidly shifting, and we can see that certain STEM spaces can also be made into queer spaces (Bikowski, 2023; Voigt, 2024). It is critical to research issues of import to LGBTQ+ folks in this time of both discrimination and rapid change of attitudes. This strand of research is most "in development." I am currently designing a study to explore the experiences of LGBTQ+ mathematical and computing professionals across the career span.
References
Bakker, A. (2018). Design Research in Education: A Practical Guide for Early Career Researchers. Routledge.
Bernier, J. (2024). Exploring Characteristics of Play in the Puzzle and Mathematical Problem Solving of Undergraduates. Arizona State University.
Bernier, J., Gee, E. R., Gao, Y. B., Pérez Cortés, L. E., & Kessner, T. M. (2024). Patterns of design thinking in playfixing broken games: an exploratory study. Information and Learning Sciences, 125(11/12), 1107–1125. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-02-2024-0017
Bernier, J., & Zandieh, M. (2024). Comparing student strategies in a game-based and pen-and-paper task for linear algebra. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 73, 101105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2023.101105
Bikowski, K. (2023). “There’s Power in that Y”: How Gaymers Manage Imbricated Stigma through an Equipollent Identity. Qed, 10(1), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.10.1.0025
Bloodworth, A., Horne, D., & Ellis, A. B. (2023). Students’ and Mathematicians’ Playful Math Engagement. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 108–117.
Gee, J. P., & Hayes, E. (2012). Nurturing Affinity Spaces and Game-Based Learning. In C. Steinkuehler, K. Squire, & S. Barab (Eds.), Games, Learning, and Society: Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age (pp. 129–153). Cambridge University Press.
Gresalfi, M., Horn, I., Jasien, L., Wisittanawat, P., Ma, J. Y., Radke, S. C., Guyevskey, V., Sinclair, N., & Sfard, A. (2018). Playful mathematics learning: Beyond early childhood and sugar-coating. Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS, 2(2018-June), 1335–1342.
Harbison, N. (2007). Doing narrative analysis. In E. Lyons & A. Coyle (Eds.), Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology. SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446207536
Holton, D., Ahmed, A., Williams, H., & Hill, C. (2001). On the importance of mathematical play. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 32(3), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207390118654
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
Lockhart, P. (2008). A Mathematician’s Lament. MAA Online, March 2008, 25.
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2018). Toward a generic model for educational design research. In Conducting Educational Design Research (pp. 67–88). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315105642-5
Nelson, J., Mattheis, A., & Yoder, J. B. (2022). Nondisclosure of queer identities is associated with reduced scholarly publication rates. PLoS ONE, 17(3 March), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263728
Root-Williams, J., Kessner, T. M., & Bernier, J. (2024). Representation and Its Historical Antecedents in New Media: The Queer-ious Case of Assassin’s Creed. Games and Culture, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241291087
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press.
Sandoval, W. (2014). Conjecture Mapping: An Approach to Systematic Educational Design Research. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 23(1), 18–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2013.778204
Su, F. (2020). Mathematics for Human Flourishing. Yale University Press.
Sylva, K., Bruner, J. S., & Genova, P. (1976). The role of play in the problem-solving of children 3-5 years old. In J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution (pp. 244–257). Penguin.
Voigt, M. (2022). A quantitative exploration of Queer-spectrum students’ experiences in introductory undergraduate mathematics courses. PLoS ONE, 17(10 October), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275325
Voigt, M. (2024). Identifying queer discourses and navigational strategies in mathematics for undergraduate STEM students. Frontiers in Education, 9(July). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1442806
Williams-Pierce, C., & Thevenow-Harrison, J. T. (2021). Zones of mathematical play. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 30(3), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1913167
I have always been someone who has had an enthusiasm and appreciation for mathematics, and that appreciation has only grown as I've explored it further both formally and informally. At the same time, I have also always had an enthusiasm for the world of games - both digital and analog. These dual loves inform my research agenda, where I participate in a diverse array of projects within and beyond mathematics education. Research projects that I lead fall into at least one of three overlapping strands. In the first strand, playful mathematics, my research involves examining when and how the solving and design of mathematical tasks and puzzles can create playful mathematical experiences for students and support students’ learning about and participation in authentic mathematical practices. The second strand, meaningful games, involves examining when and how playing and designing games creates meaning for players & designers. Research in the final strand examines LGBTQ+ issues in STEM communities of practice and affinity spaces, such as STEM classes, professions, and hobbyist spaces; I call this strand LGBTQ+STEM. My work along all three strands is unified by a central theme: using research to examine and disrupt dehumanizing systems across technological and mathematical spaces. Moreover, across this work, I leverage knowledge from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in order to achieve a multifaceted and deeper understanding of the phenomena at play than provided by any one discipline.
Playful Mathematics
Mathematicians have attested that the pursuit of mathematical knowledge can involve a great deal of play (Holton et al., 2001; Lockhart, 2008; Su, 2020), and researchers have found evidence that play can occur in interactions with mathematical tasks at all levels of mathematical proficiency (Bloodworth et al., 2023; Sylva et al., 1976; Williams-Pierce & Thevenow-Harrison, 2021). Yet, play is an underutilized resource in mathematics classrooms at all levels, especially beyond early childhood education (Gresalfi et al., 2018). Given that classrooms in general and mathematics classrooms in particular may not always be conducive to play, to design for playful mathematics necessitates a means to evaluate whether play is occurring. Addressing this was the main thrust of my dissertation, where I used literature and data collected from clinical interviews with undergraduate students to develop a framework for identifying playful interactions in ambiguous contexts (Bernier, 2024). By the conclusion of this work, I came to a definition and associated operationalization: within a scenario, a person is playing if (1) they act freely and with agency; (2) they experience an appropriate level of challenge and/or uncertainty; and (3) they experience amusement, satisfaction, or excitement.
Alongside my dissertation, I also led a team project using design-based research (Bakker, 2018; McKenney & Reeves, 2018; Sandoval, 2014) to develop playful mathematics learning activities with the game DragonBox Algebra (Bernier et al., in preparation). This included designing and implementing an activity which incorporated game play, collaborative problem solving, and playful roles inspired by fantasy role-playing games in a seventh-grade classroom, then analyzing the outcome of that activity using qualitative and quantitative methods.
In progressing this research, I have been working closely with Dr. Eliza Gallagher and Dr. Neil Calkin on the 9x9 Project. This is a multifaceted project to develop and research curriculum and teaching using variant sudoku – a puzzle genre that combines logical reasoning, mathematical fluency, and game mechanics. I bring the lens of playful mathematics to this work. My contributions to this project include being a co-PI on multiple pending NSF grant proposals to IUSE, and AISL solicitations to bring this work to a broad swath of mathematical learning environments. In this work, we are using qualitative and quantitative methods to measure learning, affective, and identity outcomes of engaging with variant sudoku.
Finally, I am crafting a new cycle of design-based research to develop a playful algebra learning unit, building on what I learned from my earlier work. This unit will pull together design elements such as: learner agency in activity selection and completion strategies; creative fantasy roleplaying and storytelling; DragonBox Algebra; and pen-and-paper algebra tasks in order to create an immersive playful environment for learners. I anticipate collaborating with in-service middle school mathematics teachers in order to design the unit. I intend to apply for grant funding for the production of curricular materials and research into their efficacy once the research and design team is fully formed.
Meaningful Games
When a game or other playful experience is well-designed and meets a player in the right audience and mindset, it can create an experience which Salen and Zimmerman (2004) call “meaningful play.” This occurs when a game demonstrates consequences for a player’s actions in a discernable and systematic way. Under the right conditions, this play can even become “transformative” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004): where the meaning players make with the game changes some aspect of the player, the game, or the larger structures both inhabit. These are the sorts of experiences which good games generate, and these experiences are worthy of study.
My work in this strand includes: examining how the play and simultaneous redesign of flawed board games can support engagement in design thinking in multiple contexts (Bernier et al., 2024); analyzing the design of and learners’ interactions with DragonBox Algebra (Bernier et al., in preparation); comparing problem-solving strategies used when interacting with pen-and-paper and digital game-based linear algebra tasks (Bernier & Zandieh, 2024); and examining queer representation in the Assassin’s Creed franchise (Root-Williams et al., 2024).
My present and future work with games in the playful mathematics strand overlaps into this strand. Additionally, I am consulting on an NSF grant pending before the DRK-12 solicitation this fall exploring how an agentic augmented reality learning experience can support students learning about and enacting agency around climate change policy. I will also continue conducting analyses of individual commercial games.
LGBTQ+STEM
In STEM spaces, LGBTQ+ folks are subject to challenges and discrimination not faced by their cisgender heterosexual colleagues (Nelson et al., 2022; Voigt, 2022). At the same time, attitudes towards LGBTQ+ folks are rapidly shifting, and we can see that certain STEM spaces can also be made into queer spaces (Bikowski, 2023; Voigt, 2024). It is critical to research issues of import to LGBTQ+ folks in this time of both discrimination and rapid change of attitudes. This strand of research is most "in development." I am currently designing a study to explore the experiences of LGBTQ+ mathematical and computing professionals across the career span.
References
Bakker, A. (2018). Design Research in Education: A Practical Guide for Early Career Researchers. Routledge.
Bernier, J. (2024). Exploring Characteristics of Play in the Puzzle and Mathematical Problem Solving of Undergraduates. Arizona State University.
Bernier, J., Gee, E. R., Gao, Y. B., Pérez Cortés, L. E., & Kessner, T. M. (2024). Patterns of design thinking in playfixing broken games: an exploratory study. Information and Learning Sciences, 125(11/12), 1107–1125. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-02-2024-0017
Bernier, J., & Zandieh, M. (2024). Comparing student strategies in a game-based and pen-and-paper task for linear algebra. The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 73, 101105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2023.101105
Bikowski, K. (2023). “There’s Power in that Y”: How Gaymers Manage Imbricated Stigma through an Equipollent Identity. Qed, 10(1), 25–47. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.10.1.0025
Bloodworth, A., Horne, D., & Ellis, A. B. (2023). Students’ and Mathematicians’ Playful Math Engagement. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 108–117.
Gee, J. P., & Hayes, E. (2012). Nurturing Affinity Spaces and Game-Based Learning. In C. Steinkuehler, K. Squire, & S. Barab (Eds.), Games, Learning, and Society: Learning and Meaning in the Digital Age (pp. 129–153). Cambridge University Press.
Gresalfi, M., Horn, I., Jasien, L., Wisittanawat, P., Ma, J. Y., Radke, S. C., Guyevskey, V., Sinclair, N., & Sfard, A. (2018). Playful mathematics learning: Beyond early childhood and sugar-coating. Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS, 2(2018-June), 1335–1342.
Harbison, N. (2007). Doing narrative analysis. In E. Lyons & A. Coyle (Eds.), Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology. SAGE Publications, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446207536
Holton, D., Ahmed, A., Williams, H., & Hill, C. (2001). On the importance of mathematical play. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 32(3), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207390118654
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
Lockhart, P. (2008). A Mathematician’s Lament. MAA Online, March 2008, 25.
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2018). Toward a generic model for educational design research. In Conducting Educational Design Research (pp. 67–88). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315105642-5
Nelson, J., Mattheis, A., & Yoder, J. B. (2022). Nondisclosure of queer identities is associated with reduced scholarly publication rates. PLoS ONE, 17(3 March), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263728
Root-Williams, J., Kessner, T. M., & Bernier, J. (2024). Representation and Its Historical Antecedents in New Media: The Queer-ious Case of Assassin’s Creed. Games and Culture, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120241291087
Salen, K., & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press.
Sandoval, W. (2014). Conjecture Mapping: An Approach to Systematic Educational Design Research. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 23(1), 18–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2013.778204
Su, F. (2020). Mathematics for Human Flourishing. Yale University Press.
Sylva, K., Bruner, J. S., & Genova, P. (1976). The role of play in the problem-solving of children 3-5 years old. In J. S. Bruner, A. Jolly, & K. Sylva (Eds.), Play: Its role in development and evolution (pp. 244–257). Penguin.
Voigt, M. (2022). A quantitative exploration of Queer-spectrum students’ experiences in introductory undergraduate mathematics courses. PLoS ONE, 17(10 October), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275325
Voigt, M. (2024). Identifying queer discourses and navigational strategies in mathematics for undergraduate STEM students. Frontiers in Education, 9(July). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1442806
Williams-Pierce, C., & Thevenow-Harrison, J. T. (2021). Zones of mathematical play. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 30(3), 509–527. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1913167