Mathematics curriculum implementation studies 2016-2023

This set of longitudinal, classroom-close studies explores recent mathematics curriculum enactment in England, with a focus on the use and impact of curriculum resources and assessment.

Team

Project lead

• Dr Jennie Golding

Members

• Research design, and core analysis and writing, in collaboration with Pearson UK Efficacy and Research team, led by Dr Grace Grima.
• Data collection in collaboration with several independent phase- and subject- expert mathematics education researchers including Pip Huyton, Jane McNeill, Peter Ransom.

Background

This set of six related studies took place in the context of a new mathematics national curriculum in England for years 1 to 11 from 2014, and new A Level Mathematics curriculum from 2017. The policy context was as described in Lerman and Adler (2016), who point to deviation from research findings in some aspects of the recommended pedagogical approaches; nevertheless, curricula featured widely-valued and research-based renewed focus on deep conceptual fluency, on mathematical problem-solving, reasoning and communication, and building up of positive mathematical affect.  It is known that teaching for such aspirations is challenging (e.g. Eurydice 2011). Associated policy discourses have privileged economic good – for individual and society – and employed discourses of equity of opportunity and international economic competitiveness (e.g. Gove 2012): such discourses underline the centrality of mathematics education in much education policy work across the globe. Each study focused on mathematics education within one phase of schooling from primary (age 5+) through to pre-university (age 18), and explored how the new curricula were being implemented in classrooms. The second primary study, and the A Level study, both extended into the global pandemic period of 2020-2022, offering serendipitous insights into the impact of that on teachers and students, and into the impact on curriculum implementation during and shortly after the mean pandemic period. A supplementary study in Autumn 2022 explored the ‘new normal’ in five secondary mathematics departments, four of whom we had worked with pre-pandemic, and one of which was purposively selected so as to complete a potentially ‘telling’ (Mitchell, 1984) sample. 

Education policy in England involves a wide range of policy actors, including teachers and a variety of ‘edu-businesses’, as analysed by Ball, Maguire and Braun (2012). The studies were funded by one such ‘edu-business’, namely Pearson, the market leader in England for mathematics curriculum materials, GCSE Mathematics assessments, and A Level Mathematics assessments. Pearson were therefore particularly interested in how their curriculum materials and assessments were being used, with what impact, in the classroom, so the sample was taken from schools and colleges who were making some use of Pearson curriculum or assessment resources. Beyond that, the sample for each study was broadly representative of schools/colleges in five characteristics known to impact teaching and learning: size, nature of catchment area, socio-economic status of students, recent student performance and governance, Because of Pearson’s resource use leadership in England, we suggest that findings are likely to be more broadly applicable. For the first five studies, we asked:

"How is the intended mathematics curriculum being enacted and experienced in the classroom, with what funder curriculum and assessment resources, and why? What is the impact on teacher and student learning?"

Methodology

Each of the first five studies had a parallel focus on how a particular set of the funder’s curriculum resources and high-stakes assessments were being used and experienced, and with what impact on student and teacher learning. Each study class was followed for at least two years, with termly interactions with teachers - and with older students. We made annual whole-day visits to each school, with full lesson observation, teacher interview and student focus group for each of two study classes. Schools sampled were broadly representative in terms of several variables known to influence teaching and learning. 

The 2017-2022 A Level study, for example, followed classes from each of the first three cohorts, including the pandemic years, though for 2021 online interactions with teachers and students replaced visits. It followed 68 classes through their two years of A Level study. Jennie Golding, UCL IOE, led all aspects of the research design and implementation, with Grace Grima, Pearson Head of Research, overseeing funder-internal processes. All fieldwork, textual, observation and student voice initial analysis/interpretation was carried out by phase-knowledgeable mathematics education expert researchers external to Pearson, including Jennie. Initial analysis/interpretation of the data was shared between funder and external teams, with cross-researcher validation of a sample of that. Jennie then led the crafting of the whole into reports, conference contributions, policy briefs and papers. We used an institutional ethnographic approach (Smith, 2005) to design, analysis and interpretation, and a variety of documented approaches to ensure trustworthiness, academic integrity and addressing of potential conflicts of interest. More details of the studies are included in the publications cited, with further publications in progress. 

One important advantage of a suite of such studies is the potential to see patterns both across studies, and within each. For example, the suite clearly evidences that both teachers and students almost always attributed authority to proxies for the intended curriculum – examination papers or printed or digital resources. Edu-businesses such as the funder are therefore highly influential as translators of policy via curriculum and assessment materials.  The studies also highlighted the very active roles that students sometimes play in the ways that the curriculum is implemented in classrooms – on contrast to the passive ‘receiver’ roles often implicitly attributed to them. 

The second primary study, and the A Level study, serendipitously were able to capture teacher and student responses to, and mathematics teaching and learning through, the main global pandemic period. To complement that, Pearson funded a further study in secondary schools in Autumn 2022, focused on ‘The New Normal’. The sample used comprised four (broadly representative) mathematics departments with whom we had worked in previous studies, together with one other department purposively selected to complement those. 

Outputs

Papers and book chapters

• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2023) ’The new normal’: emerging evidence for pandemic-related change in opportunity to learn mathematics in English secondary schools. In Fujita T. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 43(2) June 2023
• Golding, J. (2022). Epistemic quality in the curriculum: what it is, why it matters, and some implications for policy B. Hudson, N. Gericke, C. Olin-Schelle, M. Stolare (Eds.), International Perspectives on Powerful Knowledge and Epistemic Quality: Implications for Innovation in Teacher Education Policy and Practice. Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2022). Primary children’s perspectives on the roles of reflection, challenge and explanation in ‘mastery’ resource-rich classrooms. In Marks R. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 42 (3) November 2022
• Golding, J., Hill, M.J., Custodio, I. & Grima, G. (2022). Gender, self-perception, and mathematics: the 2020 England, Wales and Northern Ireland PISA Field Trial. In Marks R. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 41 (3) November 2021 
• Golding, J. (2021). Flexible learner or imposter? Learning A Level mathematics in England through the COVID-19 pandemic. Teaching Mathematics and its Applications 37/2, 98-112 
• Barrow, E., Golding, J. and Grima, G. (2021) ‘It’s been worth the effort’: Primary school teachers learning to teach mathematics remotely during the pandemic.  In Marks R. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 41 (2) June 2021
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., and Grima, G. (2021) ‘Hard to focus, difficult to learn’: Covid19 Impacts on teaching, learning and progression for A Levels in Mathematics. In Marks R. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 41 (2) June 2021
• Barrow, E., Golding, J. and Grima, G. (2021). Mind the gap: Mathematics teaching and learning in Power Maths primary schools in a pandemic autumn. In Marks R.M. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 41 (1) March 2021
• Golding, J. and Grima, G. (2020) A pandemic summer: Impact on teaching and learning for mastery in Power Maths primary schools. In Marks R.M. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 40 (3) November 2020
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., and Grima, G. (2020b) Covid 19: Impacts on teaching, learning and progression for A Levels in Mathematics. In Marks R.M. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 40 (3) November 2020
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., and Grima, G. (2020a) Teaching and learning for ‘moving goal-posts’: reformed A Levels in mathematics. In Marks R.M. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 40 (1) March 2020
• Golding, J. (2020) Mathematics education and financial literacy: a valued but vulnerable symbiosis. In Marks, R.M. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 40 (1) March 2020
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., and Grima, G. (2019) Handling a large data-set post-16: learning and assessment. In Curtis, F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 39 (1) March 2019
• Golding, J. (2019) Teacher capacity for supporting problem-solving. In Curtis, F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 39 (1) March 2019 
• Golding, J. (2018). What price coherence? Challenges of embedding a coherent curriculum in a market-driven and high-stakes assessment regime. In Proceedings of ICMI Study 24 Conference, Tsukuba, Japan, 25-30 November 2018, 237-244, ed Shimuzu, Y. and Vithal, R.,
• Golding, J. (2018) Differentiated papers and quality of enacted curriculum: Student experiences of preparation for GCSE examinations at age 16. InCurtis, F. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics 38 (3) November 2018
• Barrow, E., Golding, J., Redmond, B. and Grima. G. (2018): “I get better and better all the time”: Impact of resources on pupil and teacher confidence. In Golding, J., Bretscher, N., Crisan, C., Geraniou, E., Hodgen J. and C. Morgan (Eds). (2018) Research Proceedings of the 9th British Congress on Mathematics Education, 8-15 (3-6 April 2018, University of Warwick, UK). 
• Evers, K., Golding, J. and Grima, G. (2018): (Missed) opportunities for teaching and learning with digital resources: what and why? In Golding, J., Bretscher, N., Crisan, C., Geraniou, E., Hodgen J. and C. Morgan (Eds). (2018) Research Proceedings of the 9th British Congress on Mathematics Education, 48-55 (3-6 April 2018, University of Warwick, UK).

Conference papers and presentations 

• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2023). Mathematical problem solving: a journey of realistic aspiration or of chimera? Presented at: 2023 AEA-Europe annual conference, 1st-4th November 2023, St Julian, Malta.
• Grima, G., Golding, J. & Redmond, B. (2023). Journeys of self- and peer-assessment in a reformed mathematics curriculum: primary school children’s accounts of the roles of explanation, reflection and challenge. Presented at: 2023 AEA-Europe annual conference, 1st-4th November 2023, St Julian, Malta.
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., & Grima, G. (2023). ‘How do you assess that?’ Achieving meaningful engagement with a large dataset as part of a reformed A-level Mathematics. Presented at: 2023 AEA-Europe annual conference, 1st-4th November 2023, St Julian, Malta. 
• Golding, J. (2023). Doing ‘classroom-close’ research in mathematics education: what’s the same, and what’s different, across phases? Keynote presentation for BSRLM New Researchers’ Day, Manchester, 17 June 2023. 
• Golding, J. (2023). What do heterarchical social network approaches to policy research have to offer IRME? In Proceedings of CERME13. 
• Barrow, E., Golding, J., Grima, G. and B. Redmond (2022). Adapting to change: developing assessment cultures in English primary schools. Presented at: 2022 AEA-Europe annual conference, 10-12 November 2022.
• Grima, G., Golding, J. and B. Redmond (2022) Qualifications reforms: opportunities and challenges - a focus on A level Mathematics in England. Presented at: 2022 AEA-Europe annual conference, 10-12 November 2022.
• Redmond, B., Golding, J., and G. Grima. (2022) The digital transformation of teaching and learning for high-stakes assessment: teacher and student responses in England.  Presented at: 2022 AEA-Europe annual conference, 10-12 November 2022.
• Golding, J. (2022) Flexible learner or imposter? Learning A Level mathematics in England through the COVID-19 pandemic. TALMO workshop ‘Restarting the New Normal’.  9th February 2022.
• Barrow, E., Golding, J. & Grima, G. (2021). A year of pandemic: managing the impact in Power Maths primary schools in England, 2020-2021. Presented at: 2021 AEA-Europe annual conference, 3-6 November 2021.
• Redmond, B., Golding, J. & Grima, G. (2021). What is lost when exams are cancelled? Presented at: 2021 AEA-Europe annual conference, 3-6 November 2021.
• Grima, G. & Golding, J. (2021). Understanding learning loss during the pandemic – implications for assessment. Presented at: 2021 AEA-Europe annual conference, 3-6 November 2021.
• Golding, J., Grima. G., & Richardson, M. (2021). TIMSS-based teacher workshops adding value to policy and practice in England.  Presented at: 2021 IEA-IRC conference, 15-18 November 2021, Dubai.
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2019). How are Abacus resources supporting transformational mathematics learning and assessment?. Presented at: 2019 AEA-Europe annual conference. 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2019). Post 16 Qualification Reforms: Impacts on mathematics teaching, learning and assessment in England. Presented at: 2019 AEA-Europe Annual Conference.
• Golding, J., Hooper, A., & Grima, G. (2019). Preparing for high-stakes assessment of aspirational curricula: the role of educative resources. Presented at: 2019 AEA-Europe Annual Conference.
• Krishnaswamy, V., & Golding, J. (2019). The GCSE Mathematics saga… How is the reform implemented and does the assessment fit the purpose?. Presented at: 2019 AEA-Europe annual conference.

Reports

• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2022). Power Maths Efficacy Study 2019-2022: Final Report. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2022). Mathematics A Levels Efficacy Study 2017-2021: Final Report. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2022). Power Maths: Implementation, response and learning by Summer 2021. London: Pearson UK
• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2021). Mathematics A Levels in a pandemic: Spring 2021. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2021). Power Maths: Implementation, response and learning a year into the pandemic. London: Pearson UK
• Mason, K., Grima, G., Redmond, B., Hill, J., Carter, P., Golding, J. & Meredith, J. (2021) A Level Mathematics Qualification Efficacy Report. Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2022) Mathematics A Levels Efficacy Study 2017-21: Final report. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2021) Mathematics A Levels in a pandemic Spring. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J. & Grima, G. (2021) Reformed mathematics A Levels in England: Higher Education perceptions of impact of the first two cycles. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B. & Grima, G. (2021) Mathematics A Levels in a pandemic: Autumn 2020. London: Pearson UK. 
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2021). Power Maths: implementation, response and learning in a pandemic Autumn. London: Pearson UK
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2020). Primary mathematics: Reflections and experiences in a pandemic summer. London: Pearson UK
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2020). Power Maths: Implementation, effectivenesss and response to a pandemic summer. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2020). Mathematics A Levels: Reflections and experiences in a pandemic summer. London: Pearson UK 
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2020). A Levels in Mathematics: Implementation and Effectiveness of A Levels first taught from September 2017. Third Interim Report. London: Pearson UK.
• Grima, G., Golding, J. and Andressen, E. (2020) Mathematics Studies 2016-21: Their Value and Impact. Pearson, London.
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2019).  Mathematics and Further Mathematics A-levels -Implementation and effectiveness: Year two report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2019). Power Maths - Implementation and effectiveness: Pilot study report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Redmond, B., & Grima, G. (2018).  Mathematics and Further Mathematics A-levels -Implementation and effectiveness: Year one report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Barrow, E., & Grima, G. (2018). Abacus Mathematics - Implementation and effectiveness: Final report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Barrow, E. & Grima, G. (2018). GCSE (9-1) Mathematics qualification and free surround: efficacy study phases one to three. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Hooper, A., & Grima, G. (2018). KS3 Maths Progress and GCSE 9-1 Mathematics -Implementation and effectiveness: Final report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Hooper, A., & Grima, G. (2017). Abacus Mathematics Implementation and effectiveness: Interim report. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Green, C., & Grima, G. (2017). GCSE (9-1) Mathematics qualification and free surround: efficacy study phase one. London: Pearson UK.
• Golding, J., Evers, K., & Grima, G. (2017). KS3 Maths Progress and GCSE 9-1 Mathematics implementation and effectiveness: Interim report. London: Pearson UK.