Dr. Catherine O Connor

Biography

Catherine O’Connor has over 20 years of experience studying classroom discussions, focusing on academically productive talk among teachers and students. Her research emphasizes the role of dialogue in promoting student reasoning and literacy in mathematics across various school settings. She is a prominent figure in her field, having co-authored significant publications, including 'Classroom Discussions,' a facilitator’s guide, as well as contributing to a mathematics classroom video. One of her notable papers, co-authored in 2012, won an award from the National Science Teachers Association for its insights into student responses to large-scale science assessments. Additionally, her research interests extend to language description and documentation, including work on the Northern Pomo language, a dormant language from Northern California, as well as on Medumba, a language from the Grassfields region of Cameroon. O’Connor earned her BA from Stanford University and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. Furthermore, she served as the Dean ad interim at Boston University’s School of Education during the 2017-2018 academic year and played a crucial role in the merger that established the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.

Research Interests