Ted Graham has been a member of the Centre for Teaching Mathematics since its formation in 1990, but has worked in the University since 1988. His first contact was when he started his PhD in 1988, working on the use of video and misconceptions in mechanics. Ted took over as director of the Centre in January 2004.

Ted had obtained a degree in mathematics from Imperial College in 1981 and gone on to train as a teacher at Chelsea College, gaining his PGCE in 1982. He then worked as a mathematics teacher at Tavistock College in Devon and part-time at HMP Dartmoor before moving into research.

Since completing his PhD, Ted has worked in the University, lecturing, working on a number of projects, continued his own research and supervised other research students.

Research Interests

Ted’s main focus of research has been in the area of student understanding of mechanics. He has continued to pursue this since completing his PhD and supervised the work that Stuart Rowlands did to obtain his PhD. The work has moved from researching misconceptions in a variety of aspects of mechanics to developing strategies to overcome misconceptions. The use of concept questions particularly within a framework of parallel questions has been the most significant strand to this strategy. However the use of computer packages and graphics calculators has also played a part. The current emphasis of his work is in the use of motion detectors connected to graphics calculators to overcome misconceptions associated with kinematics graphs.

Ted’s other main interest is in the use of new technology in the teaching of mathematics. He has done work on the use of the computer algebra package DERIVE and also the use of graphing calculators. Ted is an active member of the technology research group and worked on a number of projects undertaken by the group. Ted has done some work to explore the potential to use graphics calculators with children in Key Stage 2 with Paulette Smith, who is a research student at the Centre . It is hoped that this work will break new ground and provide both interesting results and some quality resources for teachers to use. At present some simple programmes have been developed to enable children in years 5 and 6 to use the TI-83 graphics calculator. The research has a number of strands.

• Studying the experience of year 5 pupils as they work with the calculators.
• Looking at the way in which year 6 pupils use calculators in SATS tests.
• Following a year 6 teacher who is using the graphics calculators for the first time.

Details of published research papers can be found here: publications

Ted is also supervising a number of research students who are working in the technology area. Suki Honey is looking at how attitudes to technology change as trainee teachers progress through PGCE programmes and into their first teaching posts. Annette Taylor is also working with Ted on the use of other aspects of technology in teaching mathematics. Brenda Strassfeld is based in the USA and is working on attitudes to mathematics and geometry in particular.

Ted is associated with two journals. He is editor of the International Journal of Computer Algebra in Mathematics Education and a member of the Advisory Group of the Journal Teaching Mathematics and its Applications.

Projects and Other Interests

Ted has been heavily involved in the Mathematics Enhancement Project run by David Burghes at the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching. More details on this project can be found on the CIMT website, but Ted has played a key role in writing new texts for the project schools to use and acting as a consultant to a number of schools as the project was first implemented. Ted has written 9 text books to support the project, 3 for Key Stage 4 and most recently a series of 6 to cover Key Stage 3. This has been a massive task that has provided many challenges. The books, along with teacher support materials can be found on the CIMT website.

Ted has also authored a number of other books, many dealing with mechanics for A-level. Other titles have been intended to support students taking A-level mathematics or have been designed to encourage the use of new technology.

Ted is also extensively involved in A-level examining. He has been a chief examiner in mechanics since 1994 and was extensively involved in the development of one of the new specifications, both for the 2000 and 2004 versions of these specifications.

Ted and Brian Watson have been working with a number of rural primary schools in the SW. In this project they have used desktop conferencing to enable gifted pupils to work on mathematical investigations. As part of the project Ted and Brian have visited to schools to see presentations from the pupils on their findings.

egraham@plymouth.ac.uk