Lonneke Boels
Lonneke Boels is a senior researcher within the Mathematical and Analytical Competence of Professionals research group at Hogeschool Utrecht since August 2022, where she holds the position of acting professor since May 2023. She researches how mathematical and analytical competencies, including basic competence, can be acquired by citizens, students and professionals.
Lonneke Boels obtained her PhD in September 2023 at the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University with a dissertation on how to develop statistical literacy of secondary school students through histograms. In this study, students and teachers' eye movements were measured while interpreting statistical graphs including case-value plots, dotplots and histograms. Insights into persistent misinterpretations of many students and some teachers was used to improve statistics education in high school. Teaching materials based on the theory of embodied instrumentation have been developed and tested with students.
Since 2011 Lonneke Boels regularly writes about her passion for didactics of mathematics in the journal for mathematics teachers (Euclides). Lonneke also volunteers at Stichting Wiskunde Kangeroe, a mathematics competition for primary, secondary schools, and first year of tertiary education, and she is chair of the selection committee for math problems for Grade 3 and 4. Additionally, Lonneke is a board member of the Dutch Association of Mathematics Teachers since 2022.
Lonneke taught mathematics in Grades 7–12 for almost twenty years and had her own company for thirteen years in remedial teaching and tutoring arithmetic and mathematics. Prior to that, she worked in the commercial sector. Lonneke Boels studied electrical engineering at TU Delft where she also received her teaching degree several years later.
Expertise
- Didactics of mathematics and statistics
- Design research
- Eye tracking and machine learning algorithms
- Teaching of mathematics and statistics
