I am on a 3.75 Year ESRC Midlands Graduate School studentship at 天堂视频. I hold an , a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics from Goldsmiths, University of London and an MA (Cantab) in Natural Sciences, with specialism in Astrophysics, from the University of Cambridge. I am also a fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE).
My career has spanned the healthcare and education sectors and I have taught Mathematics, Science and ICT in schools in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. I am also an educational strategy consultant and have worked internationally with various clients including schools, NGOs and ministries of education to improve education standards – especially in STEM. This has involved management and teacher training, advisory inspection, school SLT consultation, project evaluation and securing educational funding at a national level.
I am also co-founder of an international which has been active since 2021 and meets online fortnightly – and welcomes new members!
I am using a Design-Based Research approach to develop an Augmented Reality (AR) number line, aiming to enhance conceptual understanding of fractions at primary/elementary level. I plan to compare the effectiveness of learning with such a resource both cognitively and affectively against conventional, paper-based number lines that are used ubiquitously in today’s primary classrooms.
Research Publications:
O’Brien, D., Moeller, K., & Foster, C. (in press). A conceptual framework for optimising number line development in augmented reality [Abstract].
O’Brien, D., Moeller, K., & Foster, C. (2025). A framework for design decisions for developing an augmented reality number line resource. In C. Cornejo, P. Felmer, D. M. Gómez, P. Dartnell, P. Araya, A. Peri, & V. Randolph (Eds.), Proceedings of the 48th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education: General Contributions (p. 299). PME.
Moeller, K., O’Brien, D. & Foster, C. (in press). Which way should a number line go? Primary Mathematics, Mathematical Association.
O’Brien, D., Moeller, K. & Foster, C. (2025). A conceptual framework for optimising number line development in Augmented Reality. In Fujita, T. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 45 (1) March 2025.
O’Brien, D., Riding, K., Ibrahim, M., Du, W., Li, S., Liu, B. & Rumbelow, M. (in press). A bibliometric analysis of research on the usage of augmented reality in mathematics education. Proceedings of the 15th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-15)
O’Brien, D. & Riding, K. (2024). Bibliometric analysis of the usage of augmented reality (AR) in mathematics education [Poster presentation]. In T. Evans, O. Marmur, J. Hunter, G. Leach & J. Jhagroo (Eds.). Proceedings of the 47th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1). PME.
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