Making Mathematics Count

Last updated

Making Mathematics Count is the title of a report on mathematics education in the United Kingdom (U.K.).

Contents

The report was written by Adrian Smith as leader of an "Inquiry into Post–14 Mathematics Education", which was commissioned by the UK Government in 2002. The report recommended an increase in mathematics schooling and for statistics to be taught as part of the natural sciences rather than as a part of the mathematics curriculum.

Inquiry and report

Making Mathematics Count is the title of a report on mathematics education in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The report [1] was written by Adrian Smith as leader of an "Inquiry into Post–14 Mathematics Education", which was commissioned by the UK Government in 2002. The purpose of the Inquiry was:

"To make recommendations on changes to the curriculum, qualifications and pedagogy for those aged 14 and over in schools, colleges and higher education institutions to enable those students to acquire the mathematical knowledge and skills necessary to meet the requirements of employers and of further and higher education." [2]

Publication of the report was followed two years later by a conference of 241 delegates, who included mathematics teachers, college lecturers, as well as university mathematicians, head teachers, local authority consultants and advisers, and other mathematics professionals. There is a report of the conclusions of this conference, [3] which was intended to bring together policymakers and practitioners to share information and discuss ways in which changes in mathematics education could be implemented to benefit schools, teachers and students.

Influence

The Smith report has influenced debate on U.K. educational policy. [4] A particular concern of the report was where and how statistics should be taught: the report recommended that statistics should be embedded in application subjects and taught by teachers of those subjects where it is applied. The government decision was that statistics teaching should remain within the mathematics curriculum. A more recent report for the Royal Statistical Society, The Future of Statistics in our Schools and Colleges retains this view. [5]

Predecessor reports

The report's title recalls the Cockcroft report Mathematics Counts which addressed some of the same issues but was compiled 2 decades earlier, instigated by Callaghan and submitted under the Thatcher government. [6]

Notes

  1. Adrian Smith (2004)
  2. Adrian Smith (2004 , p. 2)
  3. Royal Society (2006) Making Mathematics Count - Two Years On, Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education, ISBN   0-85403-627-X
  4. T. M. F. Smith & Staetsky (2007 , p. 622):

    Smith, T. M. F.; Staetsky, L. (2007). "The teaching of statistics in UK universities". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A . 170 (3): 581–622. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-985X.2007.00482.x .

  5. Royal Statistical Society Future of Statistics in our Schools and Colleges Archived 2013-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Cockroft report, Mathematics Counts

Related Research Articles

Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathematics education</span> Mathematics teaching, learning and scholarly research

In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curriculum</span> Educational plan

In education, a curriculum is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experiences in terms of the educator's or school's instructional goals. A curriculum may incorporate the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curricula are split into several categories: the explicit, the implicit, the excluded, and the extracurricular.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comprehensive school</span> Type of school

A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. The term is commonly used in relation to England and Wales, where comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965.

The National Curriculum for England was first introduced by the Education Reform Act 1988. At the time of its introduction the legislation applied to both England and Wales. However, education later became a devolved matter for the Welsh government. The National Curriculum is a set of subjects and standards used by primary and secondary schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject.

Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM) are guidelines produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 2000, setting forth recommendations for mathematics educators. They form a national vision for preschool through twelfth grade mathematics education in the US and Canada. It is the primary model for standards-based mathematics.

Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.

The National Curriculum assessment usually refers to the statutory assessments carried out in primary schools in England, colloquially known as standard assessment tasks (SATs). The assessments are made up of a combination of testing and teacher assessment judgements and are used in all government-funded primary schools in England to assess the attainment of pupils against the programmes of study of the National Curriculum at the end of Key Stages 1 and 2 where all pupils are aged 6, 7, 10 and 11 respectively. Until 2008, assessments were also required at the end of Key Stage 3 (14-year-olds) in secondary schools after which they were scrapped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Spiegelhalter</span> English statistician (born 1953)

Sir David John Spiegelhalter is a British statistician and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. From 2007 to 2018 he was Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk in the Statistical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Spiegelhalter is an ISI highly cited researcher.

Sir John Frank Charles Kingman is a British mathematician. He served as N. M. Rothschild and Sons Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Isaac Newton Institute at the University of Cambridge from 2001 until 2006, when he was succeeded by David Wallace. He is known for developing the mathematics of the coalescent theory, a theoretical model of inheritance that is fundamental to modern population genetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrian Smith (statistician)</span> British statistician (born 1946)

Sir Adrian Frederick Melhuish Smith, PRS is a British statistician who is chief executive of the Alan Turing Institute and president of the Royal Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Department of Education</span> State government agency

The California Department of Education is an agency within the Government of California that oversees public education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Core-Plus Mathematics Project</span> High school mathematics program

Core-Plus Mathematics is a high school mathematics program consisting of a four-year series of print and digital student textbooks and supporting materials for teachers, developed by the Core-Plus Mathematics Project (CPMP) at Western Michigan University, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Development of the program started in 1992. The first edition, entitled Contemporary Mathematics in Context: A Unified Approach, was completed in 1995. The third edition, entitled Core-Plus Mathematics: Contemporary Mathematics in Context, was published by McGraw-Hill Education in 2015.

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced Level, or A level, is a main school leaving qualification in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is available as an alternative qualification in other countries.

Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research.

Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) has been developed for use in schools in England and Wales to enable them to apply Assessment for Learning (AfL) consistently across both the secondary and primary National Curriculum. APP assessment guidelines were finalised in 2008 for Mathematics, English, Science and ICT. Initial development of APP was undertaken by the National Strategies but is now overseen by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA). Currently the status of APP is that it is 'recommended' that schools use it but it is not statutory. With the change in UK government in May 2010, the status of APP could change. Ofsted said APP was unnecessary in 2010, and the APP documents have not been on the Department for Education's website since 2011. The coalition government has got rid of it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comprehensive school (England and Wales)</span> Term for a non-selective secondary school in England and Wales

A comprehensive school, or simply a comprehensive, typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis of selection criteria, usually academic performance. In England and Wales comprehensive schools were introduced as state schools on an experimental basis in the 1940s and became more widespread from 1965. They may be part of a local education authority or be a self governing academy or part of a multi-academy trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elementary schools in the United States</span> Primary education in the United States

In the United States, elementary schools are the main point of delivery of primary education, for children between the ages of 4–11 and coming between pre-kindergarten and secondary education.

Mathematics education in the United Kingdom is largely carried out at ages 5–16 at primary school and secondary school. However voluntary Mathematics education in the UK takes place from 16 to 18, in sixth forms and other forms of further education. Whilst adults can study the subject at universities and higher education more widely. Mathematics education is not taught uniformly as exams and the syllabus vary across the countries of the United Kingdom, notably Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science education in England</span> Overview of science education in England

Science education in England is generally regulated at all levels for assessments that are England's, from 'primary' to 'tertiary' (university). Below university level, science education is the responsibility of three bodies: the Department for Education, Ofqual and the QAA, but at university level, science education is regulated by various professional bodies, and the Bologna Process via the QAA. The QAA also regulates science education for some qualifications that are not university degrees via various qualification boards, but not content for GCSEs, and GCE AS and A levels. Ofqual on the other hand regulates science education for GCSEs and AS/A levels, as well as all other qualifications, except those covered by the QAA, also via qualification boards.

References