Elizabeth (Beth) van Es is a Professor in the Learning, Teaching and Teacher Education (LTTE) program in the Department of Education. Her research focuses on advancing theory on the complex work of teaching and the design and improvement of teacher preparation and professional development.
Beth is primarily interested in how to support mathematics teachers’ learning to notice for responsive and equitable instruction. Her work centers video as a tool to help teachers learn to notice the complexities of classroom interactions to advance this vision of teaching and learning in their own classrooms. She also studies the nature of professional learning discourse that can support teachers’ adopting asset-based, inquiry orientations to improve teaching. Her work also investigates teacher leader expertise and practice and how to support leaders facilitating professional development to support teachers’ learning to notice. Beth is deeply committed to teachers and teacher leaders playing a central role in design and research. She draws on design-based research, improvement science, and research-practice partnership methods to design and study learning environments for these aims. She has published in some of the top journals in her field, such as Journal of the Learning Sciences, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, and ZDM Mathematics Education. Her research has been supported by the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the University of California Office of the President.
Beth completed her Ph.D. at Northwestern University in the Learning Sciences. Prior to her doctoral training, she taught high school English and Communication