MathsThroughStories.org is an international research-based initiative which sets out to explore various aspects of integrating story picture books and imaginative story writing in mathematics instruction. Our mission is to make mathematics teaching more accessible and more enjoyable for learners everywhere through the power of story telling and children's imagination.
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Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Reading. His research interests are centred around the use of storytelling (particularly in the story picture book format) to help enrich mathematics teaching and learning experiences. He founded the MathsThroughStories.org initiative back in 2015, and officially launched its website in March 2017.
Between 2023 and 2025, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was on secondment as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Policy / What Works Innovation Fellow at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in London, where he investigated tangible strategies to help education researchers become more successful in recruiting and retaining schools in their randomised controlled trials (RCTs). As part of the Fellowship’s Knowledge Exchange phase, he spent around two months based at the UNESCO and OECD headquarters in Paris, as well as the World Bank in Washington, D.C. he previously served as the Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and as an executive committee member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) and the UK Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM). He also served as Chair of the British Congress of Mathematics Education’s (BCME) Communications Committee as well as Co-Editor of the Mathematical Association’s (MA) Primary Mathematics Journal.
Between 2023 and 2025, Dr. Trakulphadetkrai was on secondment as an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Policy / What Works Innovation Fellow at the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) in London, where he investigated tangible strategies to help education researchers become more successful in recruiting and retaining schools in their randomised controlled trials (RCTs). As part of the Fellowship’s Knowledge Exchange phase, he spent around two months based at the UNESCO and OECD headquarters in Paris, as well as the World Bank in Washington, D.C. he previously served as the Co-Convenor of the British Educational Research Association’s (BERA) Mathematics Education Special Interest Group (SIG) and as an executive committee member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) and the UK Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM). He also served as Chair of the British Congress of Mathematics Education’s (BCME) Communications Committee as well as Co-Editor of the Mathematical Association’s (MA) Primary Mathematics Journal.
Our Co-Investigators are listed alphabetically by their last name
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Dr. Juli-Anna Aerila
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Dr. Aerila has led or contributed to six research projects relating children’s literature and reading in Finland over the past five years, and has actively published her research findings in both English- and Finnish-language peer-reviewed journals in her field.
Dr. Aerila joined the project in July 2014.
Dr. Aerila joined the project in July 2014.
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Dr. Chia-Huang Chen
Co-Investigator (Taiwan) Associate Professor in Mathematics Education National Taichung University of Education [email protected] |
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Dr. Chen has completed his PhD in 2004 at National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. He is an Associate Professor in Mathematics Education at National Taichung University of Education. He is a member of a number of research teams investigating mathematics education in primary and middle school contexts and has published widely in national publications in the areas of mathematics education. Dr. Chen’s research interests include remedial instructions of mathematics for disadvantaged students; pre-service teachers and primary teachers' education, curriculum studies in school mathematics, psychology of learning mathematics. He recently participate National project of Mathematics Remedial Instruction for Primary Graders.
Dr. Chen joined the project in February 2016.
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Dr. Marie Therese Farrugia
Co-Investigator (Malta) Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood and Primary Education Faculty of Education, University of Malta [email protected] |
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Dr. Farrugia is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta, Malta. Her area of specialisation is Early Childhood and Primary Mathematics Education. Dr. Farrugia teachers on two Bachelor of Education programmes – Early Childhood and Primary - preparing trainees to teach ages 3 – 11. She also teaches at post-graduate level, and supervises research at Master and PhD level.
Dr. Farrugia has recently served a four year term as the Head of Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education, one of the departments within the Faculty. Her research interests are bilingual and multilingual mathematics education contexts, code-switching, mathematics registers and semiotic systems. Dr. Farrugia is presently carrying out a case study research project focusing on the explicit teaching of the use of mathematical language at primary level.
Dr. Farrugia joined the project in March 2016.
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Ms. Guðný Helga Gunnarsdóttir
Co-Investigator (Iceland) Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education Faculty of Education, University of Iceland [email protected] |
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Ms. Guðný H. Gunnarsdóttir is a senior lecturer in Mathematics Education. She has long experience as a teacher educator and a textbook author in mathematics for both primary and lower secondary level (Grades 1-10). Her research interests are professional development of mathematics teachers, lesson study, teacher education and instructional practices in mathematics classrooms.
Ms. Guðný H. Gunnarsdóttir joined the project in March 2016.
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Dr. Lorraine Harbison
Co-Investigator (Ireland) Associate Professor in Mathematics Education Institute of Education, Dublin City University [email protected] |
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Dr. Harbison is responsible for devising, delivering and assessing programmes in primary school mathematics subject knowledge competency; mathematics pedagogies; and the use of technology to support teaching, learning and assessment, across all four years of the B.Ed. programme. She is also responsible for co-ordinating and contributing to a module on assessment for final year students. She engages in teaching practice tutorial work and school placements. She supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations.
Dr. Harbison's current research mainly concentrates on promoting equality of access and participation in the mathematics classroom from junior infants through to the end of first year in secondary school. She considers the use of the educational framework, Universal Design for Learning, to address and respond to the diversity of needs of all learners by identifying and removing barriers to learning in order to support inclusion.
Dr. Harbison joined the project in March 2016.
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Dr. Kevin Larkin
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Dr. Larkin is Lecturer in Mathematics Education at Griffith University. He is a member of a number of research teams investigating mathematics education in primary and middle school contexts and has published widely in national and international publications in the areas of mathematics education, ICT, school leadership, and Activity Theory.
He is the current Vice President Communications for the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA).
Dr. Larkin joined the project in January 2015.
He is the current Vice President Communications for the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA).
Dr. Larkin joined the project in January 2015.
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Dr. Sharyn Livy
Co-Investigator (Australia) Lecturer in Early Years and Primary Mathematics Education Faculty of Education, Monash University [email protected] |
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Dr. Sharyn Livy is a lecturer of early years and primary mathematics education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University. She is passionate about providing pre-service teachers and teachers with positive mathematical experiences that promote understanding and knowledge for teaching. Other interests include effective numeracy teaching, engaging learners, making mathematics meaningful, specialised knowledge for teaching primary mathematics, use of rich tasks and geometric reasoning.
Dr. Livy joined the project in September 2016.
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Dr. Tracey Muir
Co-Investigator (Australia) Associate Professor in Mathematics Education School of Education, CALE, University of Tasmania [email protected] |
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Associate Professor Tracey Muir is a lecturer in primary and early childhood mathematics education at the University of Tasmania. Her research interests include effective teaching for numeracy, problem solving in mathematics, student engagement in mathematics, teachers’ use of ICT in the teaching of mathematics, flipping the mathematics classroom and mathematical practices that promote reasoning and personalised learning. She is a co-author of Primary Mathematics: Integrating Theory with Practice, Engaging with Mathematics Through Picture Books and Developing Early Maths Through Story; she has also recently published a children’s picture book, Heads or Tails. Dr. Muir has presented seminars and workshops at state, national and international conferences and is particularly passionate about working with teachers to engage their students in mathematics and to enhance their classroom numeracy practices.
Dr. Muir joined the project in September 2016.
Dr. Muir joined the project in September 2016.
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Ms. Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir
Co-Investigator (Iceland) Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education Faculty of Education, University of Iceland [email protected] |
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Ms. Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir is Associate Professor in Mathematics Education. She has long experience as a compulsory school teacher, a teacher educator and a textbook author in mathematics for both primary and lower secondary level (Grades 1-10). Her research interests are mathematics in pre-schools, professional development of mathematics teachers, lesson study, teacher education and instructional practices in mathematics classrooms.
Ms. Guðbjörg Pálsdóttir joined the project in March 2016.
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Dr. Mark Prendergast
Co-Investigator (Ireland) Senior Lecturer in Education School of Education, University College Cork [email protected] |
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Dr. Prendergast is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Education, University College Cork. Previously, he was an assistant professor in mathematics education at Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin. He is qualified as a second level mathematics teacher from the University of Limerick in 2007 and completed his PhD in mathematics education, also in the University of Limerick, in 2011. He has taught both mathematics and mathematics education to a wide variety of learners. His research interests are in teacher education and mathematics education, with a particular interest in the teaching and learning of algebra at second level and in promoting student interest and enjoyment of mathematics.
Dr. Prendergast joined the project in March 2016.
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Dr. Iwan A. J. Sianturi
Co-Investigator (Taiwan) Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education College of Education, Health, and Human Services State University of New York (Oswego) [email protected] |
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Dr. Sianturi’s research centers on mathematics education, with a strong emphasis on assessment, curriculum, mathematical literacy, and teacher education. His work focuses on mathematical problem-solving, number sense, spatial ability and reasoning, problem-solving strategies, mathematical confidence, and teacher beliefs. He also examines the role of cultural contexts, children’s literature, and technology in supporting accessible and transformative mathematics learning experiences.
A key dimension of Dr. Sianturi’s scholarship involves international comparative studies on assessment and curriculum. Drawing on his experience teaching mathematics and mathematics education across K–12 levels in Indonesia, Taiwan, and the United States, he has conducted cross-national analyses of curriculum structures, textbook design, and learning progressions in Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. These studies provide critical insights into how curricular design and task features influence students’ mathematical literacy and performance on large-scale assessments such as PISA and TIMSS.
Dr. Sianturi joined the project in June 2018.
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Dr. Yi-Wen Su
Co-Investigator (Taiwan) Assistant Professor in Mathematics Education Department of Mathematics, University of Taipei [email protected] |
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Dr. Su's research interests include integrating history of mathematics into teaching and reading comprehension in mathematics, as well as teachers’ professional development. Her current research deals with students’ reading comprehension of geometric construction, the development of math reading materials and history of mathematics materials.
Dr. Su also devotes to planning and implementing teacher education courses for pre-service elementary teachers and professional programs for in-service mathematics teachers.
Dr. Su joined the project in March 2016.
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Dr. Der-Ching Yang
Co-Investigator (Taiwan) Professor in Mathematics Education Graduate Institute of Mathematics Education, National Chiayi University [email protected] |
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Dr. Yang is from Taiwan. His research interests include the teaching, learning, and assessment of number sense, estimation, and mental computation from the early year level to the middle grade level; mathematics curriculum and textbooks related studies; international perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning; the use of technology to develop children's conceptual understanding of mathematics and number sense; remedial instructions of mathematics for disadvantaged students; pre-service teachers and primary teachers' number sense, its teaching and learning, among others.
He completed his PhD at the University of Missouri-Columbia in Mathematics Education in 1995, and is currently teaching at the Graduate Institute of Mathematics and Science Education, National Chiayi University in Taiwan.
Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology recognises Dr. Yang's research excellence by awarding him the 2015 Outstanding Research Awards in Taiwan.
Dr. Yang joined the project in February 2016.
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Mr. Miikka Wikholm
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Mr. Miikka Wikholm is currently working as a Lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of Turku's Department of Teacher Education (Rauma unit), while also completing his doctoral research investigating the use of technology to enhance mathematics learning. Mr. Wikholm has an MA in Education and has qualifications to teach multidisciplinary subjects in primary school (Class Teacher) and is specialized in teaching mathematics having a qualification of subject teacher in mathematics.
Mr. Wikholm joined the project in July 2014.
Mr. Wikholm joined the project in July 2014.
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Dr. Qiao-ping Zhang Co-Investigator (Hong Kong)
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Dr. Zhang’s research interests include, but not limited to, affect in mathematics education, beliefs about mathematics, mathematics teacher’s knowledge and mathematics curriculum reform. He has extensively published his research findings in international peer-reviewed journals and presented them at international conferences over the past seven years.
Dr. Zhang joined the project in October 2014.
Dr. Zhang joined the project in October 2014.
