Understanding and addressing the deficiencies in uk mathematics education: Taking an international perspective

TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding and addressing the deficiencies in uk mathematics education

T2 - Taking an international perspective

AU - Skipp, Charlotte S.

AU - Dommett, Eleanor J.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/3

Y1 - 2021/3

N2 - This paper reflects on UK mathematics education following the poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) metric, which compares reading, science, and mathematics across 27 countries. We compared a range of features within secondary school mathematics in the UK with the countries outperforming the UK. We note disparities in the depth of the curriculum and the use of high-stakes testing which could be disadvantaging UK students. We also reflect on key factors that may underpin teacher effectiveness in the UK, including teacher expectations, in part driven by early use of ability sets, a lack of teacher autonomy, and poor continuous professional development. On this basis, we make several recommendations to strengthen UK mathematics education.

AB - This paper reflects on UK mathematics education following the poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) metric, which compares reading, science, and mathematics across 27 countries. We compared a range of features within secondary school mathematics in the UK with the countries outperforming the UK. We note disparities in the depth of the curriculum and the use of high-stakes testing which could be disadvantaging UK students. We also reflect on key factors that may underpin teacher effectiveness in the UK, including teacher expectations, in part driven by early use of ability sets, a lack of teacher autonomy, and poor continuous professional development. On this basis, we make several recommendations to strengthen UK mathematics education.

KW - Assessment

KW - Curriculum

KW - PISA

KW - Professional development

KW - Teacher autonomy

KW - Teacher effectiveness

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103845716&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/educsci11030141

DO - 10.3390/educsci11030141

M3 - Comment/debate

AN - SCOPUS:85103845716

SN - 2227-7102

VL - 11

JO - Education Sciences

JF - Education Sciences

IS - 3

M1 - 141

ER -