Associate professor awarded EF+Math Program Grant

Susanne Jaeggi to lead team in developing tools that assess executive functions and math learning

The EF+Math Program awarded Associate Professor Susanne Jaeggi and colleagues an Applied Research grant to assess and visualize math skills and executive functions using mobile app technology and machine learning approaches.

“Understanding students’ cognitive profiles can help educators move beyond a deficit framework of executive functions to better identify individual student’s strengths and opportunity gaps that result in poor mathematics performance,” Jaeggi explained. “The information can then guide successful instruction using a personalized approach.”
​
Jaeggi will lead a team that includes: Anja Pahor, University of California, Riverside, Department of Psychology; Aaron Seitz, University of California, Riverside, Department of Psychology; Dennis Barbour, Washington University in St. Louis, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Geetha Ramani, University of Maryland, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology; and Imani Goffney, University of Maryland, Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership.

Dr. Susanne Jaeggi

“I am looking forward to working with this team - we are committed to making a difference in children’s lives and promoting learning using an equitable R+D approach,” Jaeggi said. “By making math-relevant executive functions visible, we aim to facilitate students’ agency so they can direct these skills towards learning.”

Jaeggi studies task development, intervention design and implementation, and has conducted pioneering work to better understand individual differences and malleability of executive functions. At UCI, she directs the Working Memory and Plasticity Laboratory (WMP). She has a courtesy appointment in the Department of Cognitive Sciences and is a fellow at the UCI Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.

The EF+Math Program is an initiative funded by the NewSchools Venture Fund, a national nonprofit that supports projects to reimagine learning.

Abstract
​
There is a lack of easily accessible and low-cost tools to measure math and executive function skills in educational settings. Assessing fluctuations in these skills over time is especially problematic. To address this, we will use dynamic mobile app testing optimized via machine learning. Together with educators, we will create a series of mobile assessments that can be used to assess both, baseline ability and fluctuations in executive functions and math. This will enable us to visualize performance over time. We will examine how our assessments batteries can inform and drive personalized learning.
​