Dr Patrick Barmby

Contact Dr Patrick Barmby (email at p.w.barmby@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Dr Patrick Barmby is a Lecturer in Primary Mathematics at the School of Education. In the past, he has published on a broad range of areas, including attitudes towards science and teacher recruitment and retention. However, his main areas of research are the notion of understanding in mathematics, the role of representations in understanding and reasoning in mathematics, and teacher subject knowledge in mathematics. Along with colleagues, Patrick wrote the textbook for primary teachers Primary Mathematics: Teaching for Understanding, published in 2009 by Open University Press. This was based on his research work on understanding, reasoning and representations in mathematics. Patrick and colleagues have just received research funding from the Nuffield Foundation for the project ‘Visual representations in the primary classroom', which aims to develop primary teachers' use of visual representations particularly for multiplication and fractions.Patrick would welcome any enquiries from potential research students interested in these research topics.

Completed Supervisions (since 2008)

Analysis of the effects of a Constructivist-Based Mathematics Problem Solving Instructional Program on the achievement of Grade Five Students in Belize, Central America.

Supervises

• Mr James Frost
• Pei-chi Shih
• Mrs Janet Degg
• Mrs Stephanie Raine
• Ms Yuqian Wang

Research Groups

• Assessment, Evaluation and Effectiveness
• Curriculum and Pedagogy

Research Projects

• Developing the use of visual representations in the primary classroom
• Evaluation Of Every Child Counts
• Mathematics Masterclasses Programme

Research Interests

• Attitudes Research
• Mathematics Education
• Rasch Analysis

Publications

Journal papers: academic

• Bolden, D.S., Barmby, P.W. & Harries, A.V. (2013). A representational approach to developing primary ITT students' confidence in their mathematics. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology 44(1): 70-83.
• Barmby, Patrick, Bolden, David, Higgins, Steve & Tymms, Peter (2012). Predicting success on a Bachelor of Arts Primary Education degree course. Educational Research 54(3): 323-330.
• Barmby, P., Harries, T., Higgins, S. & Suggate, J. (2009). The array representation and primary children's understanding and reasoning in multiplication. Educational Studies in Mathematics 70(3): 217-241.
• Harries, A.V. & Barmby, P. (2008). Representing multiplication. Mathematics Teaching 206: 37-41.
• Kind, P.M., Jones, K. & Barmby, P. (2007). Developing attitudes towards science measures. International Journal of Science Education 29(7): 871-893.
• Harries, A. & Barmby, P.W. (2007). Representing and Understanding Multiplication. Research in Mathematics Education 9: 33-45.
• Barmby, P.W. (2006). Improving Teacher Recruitment and Retention: The Importance of workload and Pupil Behaviour. Educational Research 48(3): 247-265.
• Barmby, P. & Defty, N. (2006). Secondary school pupils' perceptions of physics. Research in Science & Technological Education 24(2): 199-215.
• Barmby, P. & Coe, R. (2004). Evaluating the MEI 'Enabling Access to Further Mathematics' Project. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications 23(3): 119-132.

Books: authored

• Barmby, P., Bilsborough, L., Harries, T. & Higgins, S. (2009). Primary mathematics: Teaching for understanding. Buckingham: Oxford Univesity Press.

Books: sections

• Kind, P. & Barmby, P. (2011). Defending attitude scales. In Attitude research in science education: Classic and contemporary measurements. Saleh, I.M. & Khine, M.S. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc. 117-135.
• Barmby, P., Harries, A.V. & Higgins, S.E. (2010). Teaching for understanding/understanding for teaching. In Issues in teaching numeracy in primary schools. Thompson, I. Open University Press. 45-57.
• Coffield, M., Riddick, B., Barmby, P. & O'Neill, J. (2008). Dyslexia Friendly Primary Schools: What can we learn from asking the pupils?. In SAGE Handbook of Dyslexia. Reid, G., Fawcett, A., Manis, F. & Siegel, L. London: Sage. 356-368.
• Harries, A.V., Barmby, P.W. & Suggate, J. (2008). What's in a picture? Understanding and Representation in Early Mathematics. In Teaching and Learning Early Number. Thompson, I. Open Univesity Press. 160-175.
• Rattray, J., Aiston, S. & Barmby, P. (2007). Learning for Life not just for Exams: the development of metalearning in Higher Education students. In Improving Student Learning through Teaching. Rust, C. (Ed) Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

Journal papers: online

• Barmby, P., Kind, P. & Jones, K. (2008). Examining Changing Attitudes in Secondary School Science. International Journal of Science Education 30(8): 1075-1093.