Michelle Cirillo
Professor, Mathematical Sciences
973-642-4371
622 Cullimore Hall (CULM)
About Me
Michelle Cirillo is a Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), where her scholarship centers on studying and improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. Her research in mathematics education spans three connected lines of work: the teaching and learning of mathematical processes, particularly mathematical modeling and proving; classroom discourse; and secondary mathematics teacher education. Much of this work extends Grossman’s idea of decomposition of practice - breaking a complex practice into parts that can be taught and learned - to full mathematical processes such as proving and modeling, an approach she developed through a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. As principal investigator or co-principal investigator, she has collaborated on research projects supported by more than $6 million in external funding, primarily from the National Science Foundation; her published work includes dozens of journal articles and book chapters as well as three books. At NJIT, she serves as the department’s faculty liaison for the Math Success Initiative, which supports STEM-interested Newark high school students on their path to becoming first-generation college students at NJIT. A more detailed biography is available on the personal website, linked below.
Website
https://sites.google.com/njit.edu/mcirillo
Past Courses
MATH 110: UNIVERSITY MATHEMATICS B II - TRIGONOMETRY

MATH 599: TEACHING IN MATHEMATICS

Research Interests
Teaching and learning mathematical modeling
Teaching and learning mathematical proof
Classroom discourse
Curriculum studies
Teacher development
Journal Article
Michelle Cirillo, Dawn Berk, Raymond LaRochelle, Kristen N Bieda, Fran Arbaugh. 2024. "Undergraduate students’ perceptions of features of active learning models for teaching and learning to teach mathematics." International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education , vol. 10 , no. 1 , pp. 172--200.

Michelle Cirillo, Casey Griffin, Amanda Seiwell, Jenifer Hummer. 2021. "" What Do You Believe Is True?" A Routine for Proving Theorems in Secondary Geometry.." North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education .

Michelle Cirillo, Jenifer Hummer. 2021. "Competencies and behaviors observed when students solve geometry proof problems: An interview study with smartpen technology." ZDM--Mathematics Education , vol. 53 , pp. 861--875.

Jinfa Cai, Anne Morris, Charles Hohensee, Stephen Hwang, Victoria Robison, Michelle Cirillo, Steven L Kramer, James Hiebert, Arthur Bakker. 2020. "Addressing the problem of always starting over: Identifying, valuing, and sharing professional knowledge for teaching." Journal for Research in Mathematics Education , vol. 51 , no. 2 , pp. 130--139.

Michelle Cirillo, Raymond LaRochelle, Fran Arbaugh, Kristen N Bieda. 2020. "An innovative early field experience for preservice secondary teachers: Early results from shifting to an online model." Journal of Technology and Teacher Education , vol. 28 , no. 2 , pp. 353--363.

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Chapter
Michelle Cirillo, Dana C Cox. "Reasoning Is in the Eye of the Lens-Holder: Observations Made Through the Lenses of Justification, Argumentation, and Proof at the High School Level." "Conceptions and Consequences of Mathematical Argumentation, Justification, and Proof," pp. 195--207. Springer International Publishing Cham, 2022.

Nathalie Sinclair, Michelle Cirillo, Michael de Villiers. "The Learning and Teaching of Geometry." "Compendium for Research in Mathematics Education," pp. 457--489. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017.

Cirillo, Michelle, Pelesko, John A., Felton-Koestler, Matt,, \& Rubel, Laurie. "Perspectives on modeling in school mathematics." "Mathematical Modeling and Modeling Mathematics," pp. 3--15. NCTM, 2016.

Conference Proceeding
"(2020). Real-time coaching with secondary preservice teachers: The practices of mathematics teacher educators., Mexico (pp. 1567-1571). Cinvestav/AMIUTEM/PME-NA. https:/doi. org/10.51272/pmena. 42.2020-246."
2020.

"Communicating mathematics during small groupwork through video-conferencing applications"
2020.

"Decomposing proof in secondary classrooms: A promising intervention for school geometry"
2020.

"The UTE model: Developing pre-service teachers’ visions of high-quality mathematics instruction."
2019.

"Conceptions and consequences of what we call argumentation, justification, and proof"
2017.

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Other
"The question formulation technique: a tool for teaching mathematical modeling"
2016.

"Benjamin Franklin's Numbers: An Unsung Mathematical Odyssey"
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2009.

"Promoting purposeful discourse: Teacher research in mathematics classrooms"
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2009.

"On becoming a geometry teacher: A longitudinal case study of one teacher learning to teach proof"
Iowa State University, 2008.