Professor of the Learning Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Riikka Hofmann is a Professor of the Learning Sciences in the Faculty of Education where she leads the Research Strand “Dialogue, Professional Change and Leadership” in the Faculty’s Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research Group (CEDiR). She holds the Title of Docent in Psychology of Education at the University of Helsinki, and is co-founder of Cambridge University Medical Education Group (CUMEG) based at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine.

Riikka’s research addresses the well-known challenge that impacting on professional practice through research and education is very difficult even when practitioners desire change. Trained in both ethnographic and experimental methodologies, Riikka’s work investigates the outcomes and constituent mechanisms of professional learning in attempts to develop more equitable research-based practices and outcomes in the public sector. She studies change efforts in both educational and healthcare settings, and through her policy work also investigates implications in policy contexts and the wider social policy field.

Riikka is highly committed to supporting real-world impact of research. She is an expert advisor on research-informed policy making working with the UK Government and the National Health Service (NHS) and international bodies such as the World Bank. As expert member of several advisory bodies, including the Cabinet Office-led cross-Whitehall Trials Advice Panel, the Leadership Research, Evidence and Impact Advisory Panel and the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, she has been centrally involved in taking research into the heart of public services and decision-making.

Riikka teaches on the Educational Leadership and School improvement Masters route as well as on a range of Masters research methods courses in the Faculty. She is the coordinator of the Research Methods strand of the Postgraduate Certificate in Educational Assessment and Examinations, ran jointly with Cambridge Assessment. She also collaborates with the Postgraduate Medical Education Centre at Cambridge University Hospitals at Addenbrooke's, the Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP) and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.