Dept of Mathematics Education seminar: 18 March 2026

[14:00-15:00] (40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A): Ian Jones 

Department of Mathematics Education, Loughborough University, I.Jones@lboro.ac.uk 

Peer Assessment and Comparative Judgment

Comparative Judgment is best known as a measurement tool for conducting research. But we can also use CJ to support peer assessment activities, and when we do interesting possibilities emerge. Studies have shown that students find making pairwise comparisons of one another's work engaging, and that the outcomes are robust enough to use for summative grading purposes. This talk will focus on the potential benefits for student learning based on initial experiments conducted in universities and secondary schools. I will discuss a current project to develop a CJ learning tool for the Moodle platform, and describe an ongoing programme of research to identify how best to arrange peer assessment to maximise student learning.

[15:15-15:50] Work in progress slot: Tilly Flint

Department of Mathematics Education, Loughborough University, n.d.flint@lboro.ac.uk 

Hands-on numbers: Finger Counting Practices and Norms in Early Childhood Education Settings

Young children frequently use their bodies, especially hands and fingers, to represent numbers in early mathematics learning. This talk examines how normative representations of number are constructed through finger counting in preschool mathematics interactions, drawing on conversation analysis of video‑recorded data from English preschool settings. Focusing on group interactions with 3–4‑year‑old children across activities such as circle time, group singing sessions, and sand play, the analysis shows how practitioners orient to children’s finger‑counting practices in ways that make tacit norms visible. Specifically, we find that practitioners treat particular ways of positioning hands and fingers to represent numbers as incorrect. However, they do not always explicitly address the deviation and sometimes positively reinforce it. We discuss how practitioner responses contribute to the social construction of mathematical norms in early childhood education, shaping children’s understanding of number concepts and influencing their engagement with mathematical learning. These findings also provide a basis for practitioners to critically reflect on their role in balancing conventional numerical representations with opportunities for creative thinking. By highlighting the social negotiation of mathematical norms, this research informs best practices in early childhood mathematics education.

[16:00-17:00] Presentation 2 (40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A): Sylvia Gattas

UCL Institute of Education, s.gattas@ucl.ac.uk 

Autonomic regulation as a developmental precursor to mathematics anxiety

Mathematics anxiety (MA) involves negative affective responses, such as rumination and heightened physiological arousal, that disrupt executive function during both mathematical learning and performance. Evidence suggests that vulnerability to MA may emerge as early as preschool, raising questions about whether self- or parent-reports, or physiological measures—state or trait—are most reliable for understanding variability in children’s ability to regulate cognitive and physiological states under challenge (Cipora et al., 2022; Ramirez et al., 2018). Cardiac vagal control, indexed by high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), supports attentional control and cognitive flexibility and is sensitive to anxiety-related regulatory demands (Thayer & Lane, 2009). Past research has shown that regulatory capacity remediates negative effects of anxiety in performance (Daker et al., 2023) and in children’s school outcomes (Obradovic et al., 2010), but it has yet to examine within the state of learning. Examining how autonomic regulation unfolds during learning and carries forward into testing may therefore clarify early pathways to risk and resilience in education.

Research Aim(s)

This project investigated autonomic regulation during both learning and testing as a mechanistic precursor to MA. Study 1 examined whether state- or trait-level behavioural and physiological measures are more correlated with mathematical performance. Study 2 examined whether dynamic patterns of (HF-HRV) during learning predicted subsequent regulation and performance during testing, modelled using generalized additive mixed models, indicating transfer of autonomic regulation across contexts.

Materials and Methods

Eighty-one children aged 4–8 years and twenty-five adults completed a novel symbol learning task followed by testing. Continuous electrocardiography (ECG) was recorded during baseline, learning, and testing phases, alongside behavioural and questionnaire measures. HF-HRV was derived using frequency-domain analyses and segmented into 30-second epochs to capture time-resolved autonomic dynamics. Trait regulation was indexed using baseline HF-HRV and parental-reports, while state regulation was indexed using mean and dynamic HF-HRV during learning and testing, alongside on-task self-report. Mixed-effects models assessed trait versus state predictors of performance (Study 1), and dynamic models examined learning-to-testing transfer and allostatic efficiency (Study 2).

Results

Preliminary results indicated that baseline HF-HRV was the most related to performance (r = 41, p < .001). Dynamic analyses revealed that children who showed early HF-HRV variability followed by stabilisation during learning maintained more efficient regulation during testing. In contrast, sustained autonomic instability during learning was associated with poorer testing performance.

Discussion

By jointly examining learning and testing phases, this study demonstrates that autonomic regulation during learning shapes later performance, providing a plausible developmental mechanism for MA susceptibility. Supporting physiological regulation during learning—and learning how to increase challenge without increasing stress—may help promote resilience across mathematical developmental stages.