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Biography

Helen Martin is a Lecturer in Mathematics Education where she specialises in developing pedagogical design capacity and supporting professionally informed ethical decision-making. Her research and teaching are based on the design principles ‘valuing diversity, developing flexibility and making connections’ with an emphasis on how others make sense of doing mathematics, becoming and being mathematicians within a community. Helen has led collaborative projects across universities around E-Formative Assessment, online study sessions for primary pre-service teachers and Multiplicative and Algebraic Reasoning across Scottish schools as well as continuing to work at a National level with the Scottish Government, , and the .

An important part of encouraging more young people to recognise themselves as mathematicians involves supporting enrichment opportunities for children and young people including the Royal Institution Maths Masterclasses from way back as a tutor with Prof. Edward Patterson, Stem in the Pipeline, UKMT Team Maths challenges, (now in its 50th year) and the Primary Enterprising Maths Challenge (nearing it's 25th anniversary) started here in Aberdeen with events now running across Scotland.

She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the international open access Education in the North journal (now in its 60th year) which supports researchers at every stage of their careers across the Arctic and beyond where she works closely with thematic network and The Centre for the North. The design principles 'valuing diversity, developing flexibility and making connections' are now used alongside the extensive editorial expertise to support early career researchers as programme director of the MEd Professional Education, EdD course coordinator and REF impact lead. 

Prizes and Awards

Senior Fellow, Advance HE (formerly HEA) 2021

First Scottish Academic journal to gain the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) seal 2021

Current Research

Assessment in Higher Education Mathematics

Learning and Teaching Mathematics in Higher Education

How choice might be actualised within classrooms

Collaborations

UK Prosperity Funded ‘Multiply’ project with Aberdeen City Council

UK Prosperity Funded ‘Multiply’ project with Aberdeenshire Council

Dyscalculia Working Group with Aberdeen City Council

Funding and Grants

New Northern Pedagogies Group (NNPG): Co-PI funded by Scottish Government Arctic Connections (£7795) with co-investigators from Universities of Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Highlands & Islands, and Lapland.

Improving Children’s Mathematical Reasoning (ICMR): Principal Investigator funded by The Carnegie Trust Larger Collaborative Grant (£40000) with co-investigators from Universities of Glasgow and King’s College London alongside Education Scotland and Scottish Government.

Online Mathematics Assessment for Primary Teachers (MAPT): Principal Investigator funded by Education Scotland (£12000) with co-investigators from Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow alongside Education Scotland and HMIE.

Teaching Responsibilities

Current Teaching

Programme Director

Masters in Professional Education

Course Coordinator

ED6002 EdD Identifying and Articulating Issues in Professional Practice

ED506A(2025-26): Master Project/Dissertation

ED556A(2025-26): Master Project/Dissertation

PGDE(S) Mathematics Education

ED1008 Radical Reconstructions of Mathematics