Maths-4-Life Project - How to Re-Engage GCSE Maths Resit Students

How to re-engage GCSE maths resit students

Students re-sitting GCSE Mathematics are more likely to be disengaged with the subject, often having already tried and failed once to improve their attainment. Furthermore, many students cannot see the importance or immediate relevance of mathematics to their other subjects or to their general progression.

The aim of Maths-4-Life is the re-engage students by teaching mathematical concepts through problem solving and discussion utilising approaches such as dialogic teaching. Relevant resources already exist but will be updated to include problems that help teachers with diagnostic and formative assessment practices and improve students' mathematical understanding and reasoning.

One is taking part in a large-scale trial to investigate the effectiveness of these resources and strategies across 100 providers, focusing on five pedagogical approaches and five key mathematical concepts (e.g. number sense and understanding of proportionality) and utilising collaborative activities to identify students' misconceptions.

The project will start in October 2018 and conclude in September 2020. It is run by the University of Nottingham utilising funding from the Education Endowment Foundation and further details can be found at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups/crme/projects/maths-for-life/index.aspx and https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/maths-for-life/

Tanja Hofmann (Research lead; tanja.hofmann@suffolkone.ac.uk)