Dr Tara Hollins

• Ph.D. Psychology. University of Bristol
• M.Sc. Computing. University of Wales College Cardiff
• B.A. (Joint honours) English / Psychology. University of Wales College Cardiff
• P.G.C.E. Primary. The College of St Mark and St John
• Leading from the Middle: National College for Leadership of Schools and Childrens Services

• PGCE Primary Programme
• BEd  Undergraduate Primary Programme
• Mathematics
• Professional Studies

Group collaboration, group processes and group decision making in primary aged children.

Memory and metamemory in children.

The teaching and learning of mathematics at primary level.

Assessment in teaching and learning.

Associate Editor of the new Electronic Journal, “Critical and Reflective Practice in Education” to be published by University College Plymouth, St. Mark & St. John.

Research Background

2014-15: Research Lead (University of St Mark and St John) on a project entitled, Improving children's decision making with a simple intervention. The project is being funded by the Marjon Research Award.

2011-12: Research Lead (University College Plymouth St Mark and St John) on a project entitled, Children’s Group Collaboration: do you have to be an active member of the group to benefit? The project was funded by the Marjon Research Award.

2010 – 2011: Research Fellow (University of Plymouth) on a project entitled, Do primary school children exchange information during group collaboration? The project funding was awarded to Dr Michaela Gummerum (Plymouth University) and Professor Patrick Leman (University of London, Royal Holloway) by The Leverhulme Trust.

Prior to working as a teacher, I worked as a research assistant on 3 separate projects over 7 years, firstly at the Microcomputing Centre, University of Dundee (Project 1. 1993-1994: Investigating predictive systems to improve the operation of ATMs), and then at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol (Project 2. 1994-1996: Investigating the confidence - accuracy relation in eyewitness and semantic memory, and Project 3. 1996-1999: Parallels between frontal lobe deficits and cognitive aging in a realistic context).

Peer-reviewed publications:

• Gummerum, M., Leman, P. & Hollins, T.S. (2014). How do children share information in groups? Developmental Psychology, vol. 50 (8), p2105 - 2114
• Gummerum, M., Leman, P. & Hollins, T.S. (2013). Children's collaborative recall of shared and unshared information. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, vol. 31 (3) p302-317

Conference presentations and posters:

• Hollins, T.S. & Young, S. (2015) What elements of a post-ITE mathematics subject knowledge enhancement programme impact on teacher understanding and confidence for teaching primary mathematics? Paper presented at British Educational Research Association Conference, Belfast, UK
• Hollins, T.S. & Young, S. (2015) Examining the effectiveness of a Post-ITT subject knowledge enhancement programme for primary mathematics: enhancing teacher confidence and understanding. Paper presented at European Conference for Educational Research, Budapest, Hungary
• Hollins, T.S. & Gummerum, M. (2014) Collaboration in primary aged children: can it benefit subsequent individual performance for the recall of information? Paper presented at the ERG in the European Conference of Educational Research, Porto, Portugal
• Hollins, T.S. & Gummerum, M. (2014) The influence of collaboration on subsequent individual performance in primary aged children. Paper presented at ECR in British Educational Research Association Conference, London, UK
• Gummerum, M., Leman, P. J., & Hollins, T. S. (2013). Do children share information during group collaboration? Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development