Bärbel works as a professor at the Faculty for Mathematics in the group Mathematics Education at the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany. She is at university responsible for the pre-service teacher education for secondary teacher students.
Her research fields are the impact of new technologies in teaching and learning mathematics, the design of teaching-learning-arrangements for middle school curriculum and questions around meaningful teacher education. Since many years Bärbel is active in in-service teacher education and founded T³ Germany (Teachers teaching with technology). Bärbel was a member of the EU-project EDUMATICS.