Dr Sally Bamber

Senior Lecturer, PGCE Secondary Mathematics.

+44(0) 1244 512739
Chester School of Education
s.hughes@chester.ac.uk
Sally Bamber

My research interests are in collaborative mathematics classroom enquiry; developing pedagogy to increase the accessibility, inclusivity and enjoyment of mathematics education for 8 to 18 year olds. I am developing transformative teacher education models that merge continuous and initial teacher education with research informed classroom enquiry. I am interested in empowering teachers as informed decision makers within their own classrooms because they are empowered to understand and interrogate the impact of the research-informed decisions that they make in lesson design and teaching on pupils’ learning. I am currently part of an international ERASMUS plus project with four other universities developing research in teacher education.

Within the University’s commitment to access and participation to Higher Education, I have designed and implemented collaborative lesson research projects with partnership schools with the aim of raising attainment in GCSE mathematics, especially for middle to lower attainers. This has led to the wider dissemination of Learning to Teach Algebra and Learning to Teach Geometry projects in partnership schools.  

I have taught mathematics in four diverse secondary schools in the North West of England and in Hong Kong. I was PGCE Mathematics Subject Leader at Chester from 2007 and also lead the MA Educational Practice Mathematics route. I am a member of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMET) committee and a member of BSRLM and ATM. I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA.

My current teaching includes PGCE Secondary Mathematics and MA/PG Cert Educational Practice in Mathematics. I supervise a range of MA dissertations, predominantly for students conducting school-based action research. I lead a social theory module of the Doctorate in Education (EdD) degree as well as supervising students at the Thesis stage of the degree. I completed my Doctorate in Education in 2015 here at Chester, researching the experience of learning to teach mathematics, which marked the start of my interest in narrative analysis.

Alongside my interest in developing accessible, democratic mathematics classrooms, I want to support the emotional aspects of learning mathematics through creative enrichment projects. MArt is a mathematics art project that I have created for primary and secondary schools to deepen mathematics understanding using images. The current theme of ‘number theory without numbers’ is in its seventh year in schools in the Chester partnership.

I am a member of the strategic board of two local Maths Hubs (SHAW and Cheshire & Wirral) and lead work groups in Mathematical Thinking for GCSE, GCSE Resit, ITE and subject leadership.

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Postgraduate:

  • PGCE Secondary Mathematics
  • MA/PG Cert Educational Practice in Mathematics
  • MA Dissertation Supervision
  • Doctor of Education (Social Theory & International Perspectives)
  • EdD Thesis Supervision

Research Interests:

  • School-based collaborative action research
  • Accessible and inclusive mathematics education
  • Transformative Teacher Education and leadership
  • Research informed classroom enquiry

 

Funded Research:

Published work:

  • Bamber, S. & Bokhove, C. (2021). How can we engage mathematics ITE students with research? Marks, R. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 41(1).
  • Archer, R. & Bamber, S. (2020). Moving towards classrooms that foster deep conceptual understanding and reasoning. In Jain, P. and Hyde, R. (Eds.) Myths and Legends of Mastery in the Mathematics Curriculum. Learning Matters Series. Sage Publishing, London.
  • Griffiths, J., Bamber, S., French, G., Hulse, B., Jones, G., Jones, R. C., Jones, S. W., Maelor, G., Wordsworth, H. J., & Hughes, C. (2020). Growing Tomorrow's Teachers Together: The CaBan Initial Teacher Education Partnership. Wales Journal of Education, 22(1), 209-231. 
  • Bamber, S. (2018). Translating research into practice through collaborative planning. in Curtis F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 38(3).
  • Bamber, S. (2016) Raising attainment of middle-lower attaining GCSE students, in Adams. G. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 36(1).  http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BSRLM-CP-36-1-04.pdf
  • Bamber, S. (2015). Learning to teach mathematics: Navigating the landscape of teacher education. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Chester, United Kingdom.

Recent Conferences:

  • Hyde, R., Archer, R., & Bamber, S. (2021). Developing Teaching for Mastery in mathematics: The case of the beginning secondary teacher. In BERA Annual Conference 2021.
  • Bamber, S. & Hulse, B. Translating research into practice: exploring collaborative approaches to transforming classrooms. In Teacher Education Advancement Network 2021. 
  • Bamber, S. & Bennett, L. (2021). Polar Opposites? Can contradictions between art and mathematics classrooms create inclusive spaces for learning? [Conference presentation]. In Educating Creatively Conference.