Jen Munson

Biography

Jen Munson's research focuses on understanding how interactions between mathematics students, teachers, and coaches can support learning. She examines how the nature of discourse within and outside elementary classroom settings can generate deep learning through inquiry, analysis, and play. Her work occurs at the intersection of understanding the discursive mechanisms that support student learning and understanding how to support teachers to enact these pedagogical approaches in their classrooms. She directs multiplicity lab, which supports mathematics teachers across the globe with brief visual activities that foster multiple ways of being in, knowing, and doing mathematics. She received a NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020 for her work on side-by-side coaching. She is the author of In the Moment: Conferring in the Elementary Math Classroom (2018) and co-author of the Mindset Mathematics curriculum series (2017-21) for grades K through 8. Her most recent book is The Collaborative Math Classroom: Launching a Student-centered Mathematical Community (2023).

Education

• PhD, Mathematics Education and Teacher Education, Stanford University, 2018
  
• BS, Elementary Education, University of Maine, 2000

Select Publications

Munson, J. (2025). Growing practice in place: Evidence of teacher learning from side-by-side coaching. Journal of
Mathematics Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-025-09708-z

Osuna, J., & Munson, J. (2024). Exploring what teachers notice about students' interactional dynamics during
collaborative mathematics problem-solving and their connections to instructional practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 137, 104380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104380

Munson, J. (2023). Enacted identity: Broadening conceptions of teacher learning. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 30(3-4),279-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2023.2296448

Munson, J. & Baldinger, E. E. (2023). What pedagogy feels like: Teachers’ development of pedagogical empathy in rehearsal debriefs. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(4-5), 622-662. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2269547

Munson, J. & Dyer, E. B. (2023). Pedagogical Sensemaking during side-by-side coaching: Examining the in-the-moment discursive reasoning of a teacher and coach. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(2), 171-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2022.2132863

Saclarides, E. S. & Munson, J.(2022) An exploration of coaches’ coordination of strategies to gain access to teachers’ classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 123(1), 155-175. https://doi.org/10.1086/720809

Munson, J. (2021). Negotiating identity and agency amidst pedagogical change: The case of student push back. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 30(4-5), 646-675. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2021.1954522

Langer-Osuna, J. M., Munson, J., Gargroetzi, E., Williams, I., & Chavez, R. (2020). “So what are we working on?” Examining student authority relations during collaborative mathematics activity. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 104, 333-349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-020-09962-3

Baldinger, E. E. & Munson, J. (2020). Developing adaptive expertise in the wake of rehearsals: An emergent model of the debrief discussions of non-rehearsing teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 95, 103125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103125

Munson, J. (2019). After eliciting: Variation in elementary mathematics teachers’ discursive pathways during collaborative problem solving. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 56, 100736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2019.100736