Dr Sarmin Hossain

Sarmin Hossain joined Brunel University’s School of Sport and Education in January 2011 as Lecturer in ICT in Education. In August 2011 she became the PGCert ICT Secondary Course Coordinator, responsible for leading and managing the overall the ICT Course.

She holds a BSc (Hons) Mathematical Science Degree from City University, London, UK; PGCE in Mathematics Secondary from the Institute of Education, London, UK; MSc in Information Systems, and a PhD in Information Systems from Brunel University, UK.

She began her academic career as a Research Associate in Mathematics Education in the Department of Education and Professional Studies, Kings College London. Her work experience extended to Engineering Education as well within the same department. Sarmin’s academic background and work experiences have enabled her to develop in research interests in three of the STEM areas: Information Communications Technology (ICT), Engineering and Mathematics.

Research Interests

Sarmin’s research interests lie mainly in the following areas: 1) Learning technologies and adoption of technologies in education, with a particular focus on tools for modelling and simulating such adoption contexts 2) Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education – with a focus on ‘understanding mathematics in depth’ 3) Engineering Education – with a focus on the uptake of engineering initiatives and progarmmes in school education and its impact on students’ engineering study/career choices. Further details of these interests and how they have been explored so far, details of relevant funding bodies, co-researchers/collaborators (both national and international) involved and publications/reports which have resulted from such works are as follows:

1) Learning technologies, adoption of technologies in education, modelling and simulation tools

Sarmin’s doctoral research resulted in the construction of a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) model of ICT adoption in schools. The model was constructed in the mathematical programming language Matlab®. Her thesis is titled “Modelling Educational Software adoption in schools”. Her previous research in the area includes: Identifying and analyzing roles of stakeholders in the school educational domain. Identifying issues surrounding the problematic adoption of educational ICTs and conducting empirical studies, this resulted in her Masters Dissertation. 2. Exploration of applications of machine learning in simulation research for project titled ‘Machine Learning in Simulation Research: Methodology and Applications’. Her research subsequently focused on FCM and Simulation Modelling as tools for use within the Information Systems (IS) domain. This resulted in a report on the exploitation of FCMs in IS which was submitted to the Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund award.

Currently she is interested in extending her doctorate work to exploring and modelling digital technologies in the mathematics classrooms and exploring the integration of ICT across other curriculum subjects.

 2) Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education

Sarmin is currently involved with the QUANTUM-UK project, led by Professor Jill Adler (Kings College London and University of Witswatersrand). This scoping study has been funded by Kings College London. The study extends from a project in mathematics teacher education currently on-going in South Africa looking at the qualifications for teachers under-qualified in mathematics. The scoping study has been exploring the UK context and finds some similarity between programmes in South Africa (SA) and UK’s recently introduced Mathematics Enhancement Courses (MEC). This has led the research team to investigate the MEC as an alternative route into teaching and through this explore ‘Mathematics Knowledge for Teaching’ with a focus on Understanding Mathematics in Depth. The research team include collaborators from Liverpool Hope, Manchester University and University of East London.

Other research in the area includes- working on a scoping study funded by the Nuffield Foundation, led by Professor Mike Askew and Dr Jeremy Hodgen (Kings College London). The scoping project identified and provided an overview of research in countries with high mathematics attainment. This resulted in a report titled Values and Variables: Mathematics Education in High-Performing Countries which was submitted to the Nuffield Foundation.

3) Engineering Education

Sarmin is currently involved in working on a systematic review titled Systematic Review of Education for Engineering and Interventions for Engineering Education within STEM-related Developments in the UK, led by Professor Peter Kutnick (Hong Kong University) and Dr David Good (University of Cambridge). The review is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. It is concerned with examining studies which have evaluated existing/previous engineering education interventions; to systematically identify the qualities and outcomes of these initiatives (which promote engineering formally and informally among school-aged children); to identify a range of pedagogies used within engineering (educational) interventions.

She is also involved in the study/project titledA cross-sectional study of effects on perceptions and actions towards engineering education as a result of interventions within LEP schools. The other proposers of this study include Dr David Good (University of Cambridge), Professor Peter Kutnick (Hong Kong University) and Heather Hawthorne (Royal Academy of Engineering). The study is funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. This is a tracking/cross-sectional study focusing on the number and type of engineering activities that have taken place in particular schools as part of the London Engineering Project. This study is concerned with exploring the extent of particular pupil involvement (as opposed to general number attending events) with these engineering initiatives; impact on pupils with regard to their age and involvement; teacher and staff views of particular aspects of the programme with regard to pedagogy and materials; identification of which parents have been involved; and relationships to technical/higher education career aspiration/choice.

Publications

Journal Papers

(2008) Hossain, S. and Brooks, L., Fuzzy cognitive map modelling educational software adoption, Computers & Education 51 (4) : 1569- 1588

(2003) Hossain, S., Pouloudi, A., Magoulas, GD. and Grigoriadou, M., IT adoption in British and Greek secondary education: Issues and reflections, Themes in Education 4 (2) : 123- 154

Conference Papers

(2009) Adler, J., Hossain, S., Stevenson, M., Grantham, B., Clarke, J. and Archer, R., Interpretations of, and orientations to, “understanding mathematics in depth”: Students in MEC programmes across institutions, 2009 British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics Conference (BSRLM 2009), Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (29) : 1- 6

(2007) Hossain, S. and Brooks, L., Factors which influence educational software adoption in schools as perceived by key stakeholders, 2007 Computer Assisted Learning Biennial Conference (CAL ’07)

(2001) Pouloudi, A., Magoulas, GD., Grigoriadou, M., Hossain, S. and Kanidis, V., IT supported learning in schools: Insights from the British and Greek experience, 2001 Computer Assisted Learning Conference (CAL 2001), Computer Assisted Learning 2001 (CAL 2001) Conference Proceedings

(2000) Hossain, S., Pouloudi, A. and Magoulas, GD., Issues of IT adoption in schools, 10th Annual Business Information Technology (BIT, 2000) Conference, 10th Annual Business Information Technology (BIT, 2000) Conference Proceedings