Home > Laura Bofferding - Faculty Profiles
Faculty Profiles
Steven C. Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education 100 N. University Street West Lafayette Indiana 47907-2098 BRNG 4132work Work Phone: (765) 494-0491work Work Email: lbofferd@purdue.eduINTERNET
Laura Bofferding
Professor Mathematics EducationCurriculum and Instruction
– Profile
+ Education
- Ph.D. — Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education, Stanford University, Stanford (2011)
- M.A. — Learning, Design, and Technology in Education, Stanford University, Stanford (2007)
- B.S. — Elementary Education, University of Wisconsin, River Falls (2002)
+ Experience
- 2024 – present
Professor in Mathematics Education
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - 2017 – 2024
Associate Professor in Mathematics Education
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - 2011 – 2017
Assistant Professor in Mathematics Education
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - 2007 – 2011
Graduate Research Assistant, Instructor, Teaching Assistant, and Supervisor
Stanford University, Stanford, CA - 2005 – 2006
Math and Science Content Specialist
Waterford Research Institute, Salt Lake City, UT - 2003 – 2005
First grade teacher
JM Ullom Elementary School, Las Vegas, NV - 2003
Kindergarten Directed Play Teacher
River Falls School District, River Falls, WI
+ Awards
- Purdue University Faculty Engagement Scholar (2021)
- Purdue University Faculty Scholar (2019)
- AMTE Service, Teaching, and Research (STaR) Fellow (2012)
Select Grants
- Purdue Launch the Future Grant ($25,000), Can students tell when teachers use AI to build word problems? Implications for AI automation in attitudes toward AI-Generated versus Teacher-Generated mathematics word problems (2024-2025) with Dr. David Gleich
- Purdue College of Education Small Research Grant ($4,566), Exploring Language and Storytelling to Support Emergent Bilingual and Monolingual Students’ Shape Composition (2023-2024) with Dr. Brenda Sarmiento Quezada
- NSF ITEST grant ($397,606), Exploratory: Promoting Commenting and Debugging in Early Years Programming (2018-2020)
- NSF CAREER award ($680,504), Leveraging Contrasting Cases to Investigate Integer Understanding (2014 – 2019)
- NAEd/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship ($55,000), Investigating the conceptual basis for the early introduction of negative numbers (2013-2015)
+ Research and Publications
- Pre-K and elementary students’ cognitive development and understanding of mathematics
- Children’s understanding of negative numbers
- Use of games and contrasting cases to support children’s numerical understanding
- The interplay between teachers’ use of questioning, number talks, and students’ mathematical reasoning
- Teachers’ use of assessment to inform mathematics instruction
- Sequencing of mathematical topics
Selected Publications
- Bofferding, L., & Zhu, Y. (2023). Composing tangram puzzles to support shape transformation. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PK-12, 116(7), 503-510.
- Bofferding, L., Haiduc, A., Aqazade, M., Chen, L., & Kocabas, S. (2023). Using incorrect worked examples to investigate the consistency of first and third graders’ measurement conceptions. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 21, 1913-1934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-022-10334-x
- Bofferding, L., & Aqazade, M. (2023). “Where does the square go?”: Reinterpreting shapes when solving a tangram puzzle. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 112(1), 25-47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-022-10166-0
- Bofferding, L., & Hansen, S. (2022). Teaching with contrasting examples: Helping young children investigate structure in subtraction problems with integers. Young Children, 77(3), 24-31.
- Bofferding, L., Kocabas, S., Aqazade, M., Haiduc, A., & Chen, L (2022). The effect of play and worked examples on first and third graders’ creating and debugging of programming algorithms. In A. Ottenbreit-Leftwich & A. Yadav (Eds.), Computational thinking in PreK-5: Empirical evidence for integration and future directions. A Special Research Publication (pp. 19-29). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. and the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund. https://doi.org/10.1145/3507951.3519284
- Chen, L., Akarsu, M., & Bofferding, L. (2022). Finding the boundary of kindergarteners’ subtraction understanding: Prospective teachers’ problem development and questioning. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 25, 91-118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-020-09481-1
- Aqazade, M., & Bofferding, L. (2021). Second and fifth graders’ use of knowledge-pieces and knowledge-structures when solving integer addition problems. Journal of Numerical Cognition, 7(2), 82-103. https://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.6563
- Bofferding, L., & Hoffman, A. (2019). Children’s integer understanding and the effects of linear board games: A look at two measures. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 56, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2019.100721
- Bofferding, L. (2019). Understanding negative numbers. In A. Norton & M. W. Alibali (Eds.), Constructing number: Merging perspectives from psychology and mathematics education (pp. 251-277). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00491-0_12
- Bofferding, L., & Wessman-Enzinger, N. M. (Eds.) (2018). Exploring the Integer Addition and Subtraction Landscape: Perspectives on Integer Thinking. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90692-8
- Bofferding, L., Kastberg, S., & Hoffman, A. (2016). Family mathematics nights: An opportunity to improve preservice teachers’ understanding of parents’ roles and expectations. School Science and Mathematics, 116(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssm.12109
- Bofferding, L. (2014). Understanding negative integers: Characterizing first-graders’ mental models. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 45(2), 194-245. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.45.2.0194
+ Courses Typically Taught
- EDCI 36401 — Teaching Mathematics in K-2
- EDCI 54800 — Teaching Mathematics to Diverse Learners
- EDCI 62000 — Developing as a Mathematics Researcher
- EDCI 63600 — Learning of Mathematics: Insights and Issues