Department of Curriculum and Instruction

I am from Indonesia. Before starting my PhD program, I worked as a lecturer at Universitas Negeri Surabaya, a university in Indonesia specializing in education, since 2019.

I chose Purdue University because this university is one of the top universities in the USA and has many of the best quality professors both in the college and within my department. I selected mathematics education as my concentration because I am a lecturer in the mathematics education department in my home university.

My research interests lie in mathematical modelling, STEM education, and technology. I earned my bachelor’s degree in mathematics education, during which I conducted research on problem-based learning to enhance problem-solving skills. For my master’s degree in mathematics education, I focused on the Rigorous Mathematical Thinking (RMT) approach to foster creative and critical thinking. Simultaneously, I completed a master’s degree in applied mathematics, where I conducted research on mathematical modelling of the immune response to the dengue virus using the SEIR model.

These experiences have shaped my current research focus on mathematical modelling in education. I firmly believe that mathematical modelling should be taught at all levels of education, as it plays a crucial role in making mathematics more relatable, accessible, and meaningful to students.

My latest research focuses on mathematical modelling in the context of a mudflow disaster. I chose this context because it is closely related to my preservice teachers, many of whom live near the affected area. In this study, I examine students’ mathematical modelling competencies as they engage with modelling tasks.

I hope to be a faculty member who is an independent researcher with a strong research background, a solid record of publications, and well-established international collaborations.

Let’s embrace and enjoy our PhD journey with enthusiasm. Stay motivated and make the most of the valuable insights and opportunities this university has to offer!

I have 3 main focus areas:

1. Investigating the competencies most important to design professionals on the job. Thus far I have focused primarily on instructional designers and computing professionals. In recent times, I have been especially interested in the cross-disciplinary skills and dispositions. I have also been interested in their lifelong learning practices.
2. Exploring alternative curricular and pedagogical approaches to support students to develop those competencies. These include transdisciplinary and competency-based education.
3. Graduate student support and mentorship

1. I was initially drawn to learn more about computing professionals’ competencies during my PhD, in part because my own background is in software development and I wanted to tie that background with my new field of Instructional Systems Design (essentially the same as what is called Learning Design and Technology at Purdue). I then expanded that interest to instructional designers (which, in addition to research purposes, also helped me understand what instructional design looks like in practice – since I came from an unrelated field). More recently I have been branching out to Engineering as well.
2. Once I started learning about the competencies needed by professionals, I noticed how similar many of the competencies were across fields, and how important professionals in every field found the cross-disciplinary skills and dispositions. I wanted to be part of making change in education to foster these, and research those endeavors to find out what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly to aid in continuous improvement, because these techniques are not easy for faculty to learn to use (often requiring a change in their practice and even their worldview). My team has also begun creating Open Educational Resources (OER) to share best practices and activities beyond the research projects.
3. Working with graduate students is the most fulfilling part of what I do. I want to learn and share more about best ways to support them in their educational journeys.

It is rewarding to have my ideas confirmed (e.g., what is important to computing professionals) but also finding things that were totally unexpected. One of my students’ dissertation studies led on using Positive Psychology Interventions in the classroom resulted in non-statistically significant results (in fact, the control group did slightly better than the treatment group). She despaired of publishing it but we talked about how much there is to learn from this finding — that what worked in a psychology lab was not as successful in its first implementation in an authentic environment. She did some additional literature search and found out that interventions like the one she used did not work in times of group trauma. This led to a very interesting paper that began to be cited nearly immediately after being published – faster than any other article I have written.

I tell this story every time I teach my “writing research proposals” course. A study doesn’t need to be huge, and it doesn’t need to “prove” something through statistically significant results. Because this study was well designed, it was publishable, and readers can still take important lessons from what was learned (or not learned).

I am not sure I have a specific publication I am most proud of. I do enjoy writing in alternative forms of scholarship, such as a “design case” which describes a design, the design process that led to it, and the challenges faced. I really like these articles once finished. They don’t tend to be cited (that isn’t really the purpose of a design case) but others may read and be inspired or learn lessons – each person from their own perspective based on what use they want to make of others’ experiences. I find this work quite fulfilling, and really enjoy reading others’ design cases.

Actually, I think I am there now – I have two grant projects that involve 1) integrating cross-disciplinary skills and dispositions into computing courses; and 2) integrating character education into STEM courses (which overlaps in many ways with the work on dispositions). I am excited to help faculty put what we learned from other studies into practice, and finding out what works and does not work for them. I am excited that both projects are designed to be self-sustaining after the funding is completed and both require us to create Open Educational Resources which will provide practical benefit to others.

• At school, mentoring students.
• In my free time, spending time with my family.
• My guilty pleasure is reading fan fiction of Jane Austen books (often published and accessible on Kindle Unlimited, but also on fan sites), but I also like to read science fiction and historical fiction and non-fiction. We also read a lot as a family and are always picking books of different genres. In the past I had some hobbies that I haven’t really had time for such as making beaded jewelry. After the kids grow up I might go back to that, or some other artistic interest, but I don’t feel like I have the time or focus to do it right now.