Dr Matt Homer

Profile

My substantive areas of research interest include medical education assessment, and post-16 mathematics education. I also have a range of teaching, research supervision and leadership responsibilities.

In terms of my academic background, I have a PhD in Mathematics, an MSc in Applied Statistics, and taught mathematics and statistics in further and higher education for several years. 

Responsibilities

• Postgraduate Research Tutor (2015-2018)
• Chair of Assessment Research Group

Research interests

Medical education

I currently spend the majority of my working time in the Leeds Institute of Medical Education within the School of Medicine carrying out assessment-related work and research. With a team of colleagues, we have an ongoing and internationally-recognised programme of research centred on improving performance and knowledge assessments. We have published widely in this area, for example, recent work inlcudes a series of papers on examiner variation in OSCEs, the most recent of which is here.

I also have assessment-related external positions with the General Medical Council, quality assuring the clinical assessment of international medical doctors coming to the UK (PLAB2), which includes bi-montly report writing and producing the most recent annual reports on this high stakes assessment. I also sit on the GMC’s Curriculum Advisory Group that approves changes to postgraduate curricula, and on the Physician Associate National Exam Development Group. I am also advising some new/forthcoming medical schools on assessment issues.

Maths education research

In the School of Education, I led research on the uptake of the new and important post-16 Core maths qualification introduced recently in England. This large-scale, longitudinal project (2017-2020) was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and in conjunction with external partners we have recently produced a range of videos to encourage the uptake on this important new qualification.

Affiliated Research Centres

Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy

Assessment research group

• Applied science students: Examining progression routes from KS4
• Developing Curriculum Pathways in Mathematics - phase two
• Enactment and Impact of Science Education Reform (EISER)
• GCSE 21st Century Science: comparisons of participation and attainment in post-compulsory science
• Growing post-16 maths participation: promoting the benefits of Core Maths
• HENNA (Harehills ESOL Needs Neighbourhood Audit) project
• Medical education assessment
• Opportunity Areas: Impact Evaluation
• Research on professors, professorial academic leadership and preparation for professorship
• The early take-up of Core Mathematics: successes and challenges

Qualifications

• BSc in mathematics
• PhD in mathematics
• PGCE (FE)
• CStat (Chartered statistician) - lapsed in 2022

Professional memberships

• Royal Statistical Society (until 2021)
• Psychometrics SIG for the Association for the Study of Medical Education

Student education

I have a number of postgraduate research students (partial list below), and I teach quantitative research methods to Master’s level.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy

Current postgraduate researchers

• Darren Perrett