About
Ben joined the University in 2022. Before joining, he worked at University College London (UCL) as a Lecturer and Assessment Designer in the Department of Mathematics. Ben grew up in New Zealand, where he completed an BSc in Mathematics at the University of Auckland in 2015. In 2019, Ben completed his PhD in the Mathematics Education at Loughborough University, under the supervision of Drs Lara Alcock and Ian Jones, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at West Virginia University (WVU) for one year in 2020.
Find more information about my work at daviesben.com
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Undergraduate Mathematics Education (including proof and argumentation)
- Assessment Methods in Higher Education
- Digital tools for Mathematics Education (including STACK and LLMs)
Current research
Ben’s current research follows several strands within mathematics education. He focused, in particular, on students’ understanding of mathematical proof, and various novel assessment methods in this area. Ben makes extensive use of an assessment method known as comparative judgement, and seeks to promote and understand its role across the social sciences. Other recent or on-going work has focused on students’ example generation, computer-aided assessments and the philosophy of mathematical practice.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Ben has a diverse teaching profile crossing education, social science and mathematics. At various universities, he has taught modules on pure and applied mathematics, physics, history of mathematics and science, and research methods for educational research. He is also an experienced developer of automated assessments for mathematics and science (using STACK), and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
External roles and responsibilities
Biography
Ben Davies is a Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Southampton. Ben works within the research centre on Mathematics, Science and Health Education, and is primarily focused on mathematics education and assessment in HE. Ben teaches on the BSc, MSc, and MSc (online) degree programmes, specialising in quantitative research methods in education. He is also a co-designing a new module for the BSc programme, focusing on developments in mathematics education.
Prizes
- Education Excellence Award for Assessment Innovation (2022)
- Best Postgraduate Demonstrator - School of Science (2019)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2022)
- Automated Theorem Provers and the future instruction of proof-based mathematics (2020)