About

Erin Horne is the Assistant Dean for Professional Education and Accreditation at the College of Education at NC State University. Her role involves overseeing professional education programs and ensuring accreditation standards are met. She is part of the leadership team that supports the college's strategic initiatives in education, research, and community engagement. Her responsibilities include managing professional development, licensure, and accreditation processes within the college, contributing to the college's mission to prepare educators and educational leaders.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Mathematics
• Epistemology
• Political Science
• Mathematics education
• Social Science
• Engineering
• Philosophy
• Management science
• Medicine
• Law
• Pedagogy

Selected publications

• Interdisciplinary project based-inquiry: Empowering students to solve global problems

  Eurasia Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education · 2025-05-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This study investigates the impact of an interdisciplinary project-based inquiry global project on 9<sup>th</sup> grade students’ science content knowledge and engagement using a mixed-methods research design. Data sources included pre/post tests on science content, pre/post survey on student motivation, and student focus groups interview data. Results indicate there were significant increases in student science content knowledge and significant increases in their feelings of empowerment. Three themes emerged from the focus group interviews: (1) collaborating during the pandemic, (2) motivation through sharing their ideas, and (3) motivation to learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics content to solve global problems. Discussion focuses on the ways project-based learning help students feel motivated, even in a virtual learning environment.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Design & Pitch Challenges in STEM: A Theoretical Framework for Centering Mathematics Learning in Entrepreneurial Pitch Competitions

  Education Sciences · 2025-05-25 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Solving many of the pressing issues facing the world today will require a deep and integrated understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). To prepare today’s K-12 students to tackle these challenges, STEM education must create opportunities to learn disciplinary content while inventing actionable solutions to messy, interdisciplinary problems. Learning frameworks, such as Project-Based Learning (PBL), Design-Based Learning (DBL), and Entrepreneurial-Based Learning (EBL), could support this reconceptualization of STEM education. New approaches are needed that leverage and integrate what works from these frameworks to better prepare students for success post-schooling. This means leveraging frameworks that emphasize practices and ways of thinking that support students to build and justify solutions that create value for users, while also creating a need for disciplinary content knowledge. This is especially necessary for mathematics, a discipline that is often treated insufficiently in interdisciplinary STEM activities. This paper introduces the Design & Pitch (D&P) Challenges in STEM Learning Framework, a novel learning framework that leverages features of PBL, DBL, and EBL, situating math learning within entrepreneurial pitch competitions. It describes the D&P Learning Framework and explores how each contributing learning framework combines to enhance students’ work, focusing their mathematical reasoning, while also empowering them to invent relevant solutions to authentic problems.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Designing to transform: High school students’ reasoning with geometric transformations in an authentic real-world project

  The Journal of Educational Research · 2025-09-20

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Amplifying Mathematics Learning Through Teacher Discourse Moves: Investigating Teachers’ Personal Practical Knowledge Within an Entrepreneurial Design Projects

  Journal of Mathematics Education · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  This study investigates how teachers facilitate small-group mathematical discourse during Design & Pitch (D&P) Challenges in STEM, an experiential framework combining entrepreneurial, project-based, and design-based learning. By examining teacher interactions, we explore how educators draw on their personal practical knowledge to support student thinking and navigate the unpredictable nature of student-generated ideas in these innovative learning environments. This exploratory study investigates how teachers drew on their personal practical knowledge during group check-ins, leveraging teacher discourse moves (TDMs) to facilitate student thinking and mathematics learning. We analyzed 14 video-recorded small-group check-ins, memoed for evidence of personal practical knowledge and coded using a priori TDMs drawn from the North Carolina Collaborative for Mathematics Learning (NC2ML) framework. A thematic analysis of the coded transcripts revealed patterns in how teachers facilitated discourse, leading to three emergent themes: positioning students as experts, co-designing with students, and pushing students toward an outcome. These findings provide insight into how discourse moves can be used to support small group discussions within an entrepreneurial design project, as well as the challenges that emerge for teachers when guiding students towards desired outcomes.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Analysing the authenticity of a U.S. statistics textbook

  HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2025-06-17

  article

  International audience

  Publisher

• (Toward) Essential Student Learning Objectives for Teaching Geometry to Secondary Pre-Service Teachers

  2024-01-30

  book-chapter

  In this chapter, we describe the process that led to the development of a set of essential Student Learning Objectives (SLO) for undergraduate Geometry for Teachers courses. We briefly summarize each SLO, connect these SLOs to the AMTE Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics (SPTM) and Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (CUPM) Curriculum Guide, and provide recommendations for implementation and future stewardship of the SLOs.

  PublisherDOI

• Algorithms, spreadsheets and functions: exploring middle graders’ functional reasoning during a STEM entrepreneurial pitch competition

  International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology · 2024-11-25 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supporting Student Learning of Geometry Through Animated Worked Example Pairs

  2024-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Defining Test‐Score Interpretation, Use, and Claims: Delphi Study for the Validity Argument

  Educational Measurement Issues and Practice · 2023-06-27 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Validity is a fundamental consideration of test development and test evaluation. The purpose of this study is to define and reify three key aspects of validity and validation, namely test‐score interpretation, test‐score use, and the claims supporting interpretation and use. This study employed a Delphi methodology to explore how experts in validity and validation conceptualize test‐score interpretation, use, and claims. Definitions were developed through multiple iterations of data collection and analysis. By clarifying the language used when conducting validation, validation may be more accessible to a broader audience, including but not limited to test developers, test users, and test consumers.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global during a Pandemic: A New Learning Ecology Perspective

  Education Sciences · 2023-10-31 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Building on new learning ecology theory and situated in the COVID-19 pandemic context, a qualitative research design was used to examine student and teacher perspectives on Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global. Drawing on Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Project-Based Learning (PjBL), PBI Global supports participants toward engaging in inquiry-to-action aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Data sources for this study included transcripts from student and teacher focus groups conducted before, during, and after the PBI Global process. Three themes emerged (1) creating global awareness of water issues, (2) learning to collaborate in remote and hybrid contexts, and (3) enhancing self-efficacy through iterative learning. The discussion focuses on the affordances and challenges of engaging in PBL during non-voluntary online learning, as well as study limitations and directions for future research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Validity Evidence for Measurement in Mathematics Education (VM2ED)

  NSF · $1.4M · 2019–2027

• Supporting Students' Science Content Knowledge through Project-Based Inquiry

  NSF · $449k · 2019–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Jonathan D. Bostic

  Bowling Green State University

  10 shared

• Michele Carney

  Boise State University

  6 shared

• Corey Webel

  University of Missouri

  5 shared

• Jason McManus

  5 shared

• A.B. Khalikulov

  Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

  5 shared

• Mika Munakata

  5 shared

• Stephanie Casey

  Eastern Michigan University

  4 shared

• Hiller A. Spires

  North Carolina State University

  4 shared

Labs

• Friday InstitutePI