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Dr. Ana Rivero Arias is a clinical associate professor in STEM education in the department of Teaching, Learning and Leadership. Prior to her work at ¿ìèÊÓƵ, she collaborated in a private institution in Monterrey, Mexico as math and science high school teacher, curriculum supervisor, and head of the natural science department. Also, she developed the science curriculum for a high-needs vocational high school. As an undergraduate, she studied food industry engineering. She has a master’s in education and organizational development from the University of Monterrey. She studied her Ph.D. in Teaching, Curriculum, and Learning at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with emphasis on science education. Her dissertation was about knowledge and experiences of metacognition and reflective practices for teaching secondary science. She also worked with her research group on how subject matter knowledge and misconceptions impact inquiry-based teaching practices.

Ana has worked at SU since 2017 teaching in graduate and undergraduate teacher education programs, online, hybrid, and in-person. She has designed and taught education courses for elementary and secondary teacher candidates and coached teacher candidates, especially secondary science, during their full-time internship. She has served on different program and college committees, including administrative work as co-director program director for undergraduate teacher ed students and assistant program director for graduate programs.

Teaching and Research Interests

Dr. Rivero Arias believes in the importance of teaching science as inquiry and using metacognition to enhance learning. For her, inquiry-based teaching can provide opportunities for all, and especially for students coming from diverse communities, to learn and develop autonomy, agency, and collaboration skills. Moreover, she promotes the inclusion of NGSS engineering and scientific practices, data science, and metacognition in the classroom to support students’ scientific literacy and their development as informed citizens for a more fair and humane world.

Her research interests include the use of reflection and metacognition, the application of engineering practices for elementary teachers, ungrading teaching practices in science education, teacher education culminating assessment tools, and the development of inquiry-based practices in beginning science teachers.