Research interests and expertise

Bakker currently focuses on the relevance of educational research (with Akkerman and Penuel) and embodied cognition (conferences 2015 and 2017) as well as equity. Technology plays an important role in almost every project. A project on Interest in Science: Development Across Sites of Learning (ISDASOL) started in September 2012 (with Akkerman, see her video on updated inTin app). An NWO PROO project on promoting student attitude toward science and mathematics produced a meta-analysis published in Educational Research Review. NWO Creative Industries funded a project on the Digital Turn in Epistemology with three PhD students (with prof. F. A. Muller and Jan Broersen). Bakker is interested in philosophy (inferentialism, with Jan Derry, UCL) and collaborates with Dor Abrahamson (Berkeley). August 2016 - 2017 he worked parttime as a fellow for Bremen University (Germany) on a book about design research (Routledge) and gave workshops for PhD students who do design research in education. He is interested in the future of (math) education research (survey), the future of education itself, and inclusive teaching (USO project 2021-2022, see also racism editorial). In 2021, an NWA project on multilingual voices in STEM education started under Elma Blom's leadership.

PhD project supervision:

1. Adri Dierdorp (11-2013): Learning correlation and regression within authentic contexts
2. Kees Hoogland (8-11-2016): Depictive word problems
3. Nathalie van der Wal (9-12-2020): techno-mathematical literacies in higher professional education (engineering, with Paul Drijvers)
4. Marianne van Dijke (June 30, 2021; DUDOC): statistics education in lower secondary education (with Paul Drijvers); MTL & ESM papers
5. Winnifred Wijnker (June 23, 2021; UU): video (with Paul Drijvers); Projections; BJET paper
6. Lonneke Boels (Sept 20, 2023; teacher bursary NWO); histograms (with Paul Drijvers); ERR review
7. Rosa Alberto (NWO): digital turn in epistemology from an embodied, extended, embedded cognition perspective (with Paul Drijvers). Action-based embodied design review
8. Elske de Waal (UU): history of the institute in its wider disciplinary developments of mathematics and science education research (with Bert Theunissen and Christine Knippels)
9. Lianne Stolte (NWA - Multilingual voices in STEM education): with Elma Blom and Jantien Smit (since October 2021)
10. Lucía Chisari (NWA - Multilingual voices in STEM education): with Elma Blom and Jantien Smit
11. Erin MacDonald (NWA - Multilingual voices in STEM education): with Elma Blom and Eva van de Weijer 
12. Hanneke 't Hart-Baart (teacher bursary NWO): technology for newcomers in math education, with Elma Blom and Jantien Smit (since September 2022).

Postdoc supervision/collaboration:

1. Shakila Shayan (2014-2017): Embodied cognition: co-supervision with Marieke van der Schaaf (Education, Social Sciences) in collaboration with Abrahamson (Berkeley)
2. Eline Westerhout (2016-2019, postdoc VO): Design of educational games by students (with Paul Drijvers)
3. Anna Shvarts (2018-2021): Embodied instrumentation, with Drijvers; ESM paper
4. Mirona Moraru (2022-2027): Translanguaging as boundary crossing, with Elma Blom

2019 - 2021, Bakker was editor-in-chief of Educational Studies in Mathematics (ESM, SSCI), one of the two A* journals in the field of mathematics education (ranking). In the Master's programme Science Education and Communication (SEC), he teaches Research Proposals and coordinates the Research Projects. In 2011 he was the local organiser of the conference on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking and Literacy (SRTL); again in 2022. He was the CERME 2013 working group leader of Stochasticial Thinking (WG5) and co-leader of the theories group in 2017 and 2019. With Stephan Hussmann he cochaired the international Inferentialism in Statisics and Mathematics Education group and guest edits a special issue on this topic for Mathematics Education Research Journal. Research on embodied design is ongoing with Dor Abrahamson. Research with Sanne Akkerman is also ongoing (interest, handbook chapter, relevance). Bakker was project leader of The digital turn in epistemology project and is co-applicant of an NWA project on multilingual voices in STEM education (main applicant: Elma Blom). His latest interest is causal reasoning about education (forthcoming book chapter in a Routledge handbook with Angerer, Penuel and Akkerman).

From January 2024, Bakker will be full professor at the University of Amsterdam (STEM education and curriculum), leading the Research Centre for Curriculum Studies (RCCS).