Susan B. Empson

Susan B. Empson is an American scholar of mathematics education and an emerita professor in the Department of Learning, Teaching, and Curriculum at the University of Missouri, where she held the Richard Miller endowed chair of mathematics education. Her research focuses on children’s mathematical development, particularly their understanding of fractions and rational numbers, the use of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) in elementary mathematics classrooms, and the professional development of mathematics teachers. She has been a CGI researcher since 1989 and is a coauthor of Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction (first and second editions) and Extending Children’s Mathematics: Fractions and Decimals (with Linda Levi).

Empson’s work has been widely published in leading journals such as Cognition and Instruction, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Teaching Children Mathematics, and Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education. Her research has received sustained support from the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, including projects examining elementary teachers’ learning and their responsiveness to children’s mathematical thinking in rational number domains. She earned her PhD in mathematics education from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, following earlier degrees in mathematics education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has held long-term faculty appointments at both the University of Missouri and the University of