Dr. Vera Baumgartner

was part of the Professorship for Learning Sciences and Higher Education from September 2019 to December 2023. With a background in mathematics, Vera joined a learning sciences project that aimed to implement and test a problem-solving before instruction design in a linear algebra course for first-year mechanical engineering students. For her thesis, Vera lead the design-based research project, tested its effectiveness, and investigated the underlying learning mechanisms.

Furthermore, Vera developed an assessment to test students’ transfer ability from linear algebra to mechanical engineering domains. The project was conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Simona Daguati, Dr. Dragan Trninic, Dr. Meike Akveld, Dr. Alexander Caspar, and her two supervisors, Prof. Dr. Manu Kapur and Prof. Dr. Norbert Hungerbühler.

After successfully defending her thesis in December 2023, Vera started working as a secondary school mathematics teacher.