Ball began teaching elementary school in 1974. Her development as a teacher and teacher leader led to new interests in teaching and teachers' learning, and she entered a doctoral program at Michigan State University to study teacher learning and policy with a focus in mathematics education.
Two research projects are the site for her current work.
With David Cohen and Brian Rowan, she is currently co-directing the Study of Instructional Improvement, a large longitudinal study of whole-school reforms designed to improve instruction and learning in reading/language arts and mathematics in high-poverty elementary schools. The research team is studying the course of three major whole-school reform programs in 100 schools over five years, tracing the interventions' efforts to make change, and the responses of school personnel, teachers, parents, and students. Developing measures of teachers' professional knowledge, their opportunities to learn, and their instructional practice is a central part of Ball's work on this study.
Ball also directs the Mathematics Teaching and Learning to Teach Project. This research team, which includes Hyman Bass, a research mathematician, studies mathematics teaching. Problems that the group is investigating include ways to uncover and describe the work of teaching in finer detail, and what knowing mathematics for teaching entails. This group is also exploring ways in which records of practice (e.g., videotapes of classrooms, student work) can be used to support communication about teaching and learning among a wide range of stakeholders.
Ball's publications include articles on teacher learning and teacher education; the practice and challenges of teaching, the role of subject matter knowledge in teaching and learning to teach; and the relations of policy and practice in instructional improvement.
