Richard Skemp

Richard Rowland Skemp (1919 to 1995) was a British mathematician, psychologist and academic who specialised in mathematical education. Born in Bristol, he was educated at Wellington College and won a mathematics scholarship to Hertford College, Oxford, then served in the Royal Corps of Signals in India during the Second World War. He began as a school mathematics teacher at Oundle School and Rye St Antony School, and a growing interest in how children learn led him to a second degree in psychology and a doctorate at the University of Manchester in 1959 on difficulties in learning mathematics. He became a lecturer in psychology at Manchester in 1955, joined the University of Warwick as Professor of Educational Theory in 1973 and directed its Mathematics Education Research Centre from 1978 until he retired in 1986. His selected works include Reflective Intelligence and Mathematics, The Psychology of Learning Mathematics and the paper Relational understanding and instrumental understanding.