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Dr Matt Homer

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. I am also a Chartered Statistician (CStat).

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 is on re-conceptualising examiner stringency in performance tests and on conjunctive standards.

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), and sitting on the GMC’s Curriculum Advisory Group that approves changes to postgraduate curricula. I am also sitting on the Medical Skills Council Assessment Alliance group that is working on psychometric and standard setting issues in the forthcoming Medical Licensing Assessment. Finally, I sit on the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Test of Competence Assurance Advisory Group, and on the Physician Associate National Exam Development Group.

 

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.

We also have papers from this project here and here, as well as the final report which was published in September 2020.

I have a developing interest in post-16 Maths Schools, and am involved in early research on the development of the new Leeds Maths School opening to students in 2023.

 

Affiliated Research Centres

Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy

Assessment research group

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

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

Professional memberships

  • Royal Statistical Society
  • Psychometrics SIG for the Association for the Study of Medical Education

Student education

I have a number of postgraduate research students, and I teach quantitative research methods to Master’s level.

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for Curriculum, Pedagogy and Policy

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>