Mathematics Education (Research)

The Department of Mathematics Education is one of the largest mathematics education research groups in the UK. Our research focuses on three areas: Mathematical Cognition, Education Design and Evaluation, and Higher Education Pedagogy. We explore the fundamental processes involved in learning mathematics, as well as the design and evaluation of innovative pedagogy.

In the Research Excellence Framework 2021, 83% of our research activity was judged to be ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. Academics from the Department have won national and international awards for their research and research-informed teaching practices. They connect with other specialists throughout the UK and run monthly seminars and workshops, attracting academics and researchers from across the region, which you will benefit from as a student, along with our reading group sessions.

We attract an increasing amount of external funding for our research with grants from, for example, the ESRC, the Royal Society, the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy, Action Medical Research and the HE STEM programme. Notable recent funding successes include the Centre for Mathematical Cognition which was established in 2019 with a £7.2m ‘Expanding Excellence in England’ grant from Research England and the Centre for Early Mathematics Learning which is funded by a £9.8m ESRC Centre grant.

The Department is responsible for the University-wide Mathematics Learning Support Centre, which provides mathematics and statistics support to all students. In addition, one-to-one support for students at all levels of study is provided by Mathematics Education staff and colleagues in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The Statistics Advisory Service is a specialist service which is in great demand, providing support for final-year project students, postgraduates and staff requiring help with statistics.

The Department of Mathematics Education is proud to be part of the ESRC Midlands Graduate School Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) in partnership with the universities of Warwick, Nottingham, Birmingham, Aston and Leicester.