Staff profile

After completing an honours degree in mathematics and PGCE at Bristol University (1970/72) Dr Harries worked in the primary and secondary sectors both in UK and overseas. He was head of mathematics at a large Bristol comprehensive school before moving to the Higher Education Sector in 1990. He completed his PhD (1997) at Bristol University and joined the School of Education at Durham in 1999. He is divisional director for Initial Teacher Training, teaches mathematics education on undergraduate and post graduate programmes, and supervises dissertations at Masters and doctoral level. Dr. Harries’ research interests are in mathematics education, mostly revolving around the use of information technology in the learning of mathematics, the way that mathematical ideas are represented for young children, children’s approaches to problem solving (in particular word problems). He also has an interest in ways of developing effective partnerships between schools and HEI providers. His research on these themes has been funded by organisations, including DfES, QCA, TTA. He is interested in both quantative and qualitative methods of analysing data and is particularly interested in teacher participation in research studies. The primary maths team has developed a web site for primary mathematics – based on their ideas about representation: http://www.danimaths.co.uk He would welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students wishing to pursue thesis study in the field of mathematical representations, reasoning and understanding, using IT environments

Completed Supervisions (since 2008)

A Study into the Improvement in the Mathematical Academic Attainment of Low Attainers in Year 7 (11 – 12 year olds) when Accelerated Learning is used as a Teaching Pedagogy in the Classroom

• Improving Basic Education in Grade 1 in Lesotho: Pilot

• 2005: DfES Grant: DfES grant of ~40K to explore links between teaching English and Mathematics in primary schools and the possible connection between this and achievement levels. Produced a report for DfES jointly with Sue Beverton.
• 0000: Conferences: July 2004: 2 papers at ICME in Denmark Jan. 2003: Invited lecturer at mathematics education conference for Masters degree students in Switzerland organised by University of Bern March 2002: Presented lead lecture for Swiss teacher educators conference in Ascona, Switzerland. This led to a substantial paper in the Swiss Teacher Educators Journal
• 0000: Editorial Board: A member of the editorial board of Research in Mathematics Education The international mathematics education research journal of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics Editors: Elena Nardi (University of East Anglia) Tim Rowland (University of Cambridge) published by Routledge
• 0000: National and Regional TTA awards: 2002-04: Two National and Regional TTA awards to produce videos and e-books on assessment of trainees in the classroom - £10,000 and £15000. Project run jointly with Northumbria University
• 0000: Reviewer: Reviewer for BSRLM papers

Chapter in book

• 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.

Journal Article

• Harries, A.V. & Barmby, P. (2008). Representing multiplication. Mathematics Teaching 206: 37-41.
• Harries, A. & Barmby, P.W. (2007). Representing and Understanding Multiplication. Research in Mathematics Education 9: 33-45.
• Harries, A.V. & Suggate, J. (2006). Exploring links across representations of numbers with young children. International Journal for Technology in Mathematics Education 13(2): 53-64.
• Cooper, B. & Harries, A.V. (2005). Making sense of realistic word problems: portraying working class 'failure' on a division with remainder problem. International Journal of Research & Method in Education 28(2): 147-169.
• A.V. Harries (2004). An Exploration into the mathematics subject knowledge of students on QTS courses. Quadrennial International Congress on Mathematics Education
• Cooper, B. & Harries, A.V. (2002). Children's Responses to Contrasting 'Realistic' Mathematics Problems: Just How Realistic Are Children Ready To Be? Educational Studies in Mathematics 49(1): 1-23.
• A.V. Harries (2002). The representation of mathematical ideas for young learners: implications for teacher training. Swiss Journal of Teacher Education 17-25.
• A.V. Harries (2001). Working through Complexity - an experience of devleoping mathematical thinking through the use of Logo with low attaining pupils. Support for Learning 16(1): 23-28.
• Sutherland, R., Winter, J. & Harries, A.V. (2001). A transnational comparison of primary mathematics text books: the case of multiplication. Research in Mathematics Education 3: 155-169.