Tuesday, 02 May 2023
New research has found that institution-wide support for post-16 GCSE maths resit students through a ‘Whole College Approach’ can improve maths learning.
The ‘Whole College Approach’ (WCA), developed by experts at the University of Nottingham, shifts responsibility for improving students’ mathematics skills to be shared across the institution, supported by all staff through their active engagement in a collaborative effort.
The participating colleges reported improvements such as higher rates of students’ attendance at maths lessons, and changes in attitudes that led to students becoming more engaged and motivated. They also reported positive changes to their institution’s culture overall.
The pilot study saw colleges guided by the experts in the University of Nottingham’s School of Education to take a ‘Whole College Approach’ (WCA) when it came to supporting students who were resitting their maths GCSEs alongside their vocational post-16 course(s).
The academics structured a programme for colleges to follow, with frequent support and evaluation. 16 colleges took part in the pilot, funded by the Department for Education, as part of the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Centres for Excellence in Maths (CfEM) programme.
The study comes as a result of the findings of a University of Nottingham project, Mathematics in Further Education Colleges (MiFEC) by Professor Andy Noyes and Dr Diane Dalby, which evidenced broad agreement from a cross-section of staff in England’s Further Education colleges about the importance of maths and students with low attainment improving their mathematics skills. It also found that students can receive inconsistent messages, explicitly and implicitly, about the need to engage with mathematics; and that combinations of strategic or operational approaches can produce variations in students’ experiences and sometimes hinder their participation or progress.
Professor Andy Noyes, Professor of Education in the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education at the University of Nottingham, said: “It can be very difficult for students to remain motivated and engaged in learning maths when they have failed GCSE maths in school and have to retake the subject whilst studying on a vocational programme in further education."
Pass rates for GCSE maths resits are very low, and poor maths skills can hold students back from career progression or further study. So, it is really positive to see that the Whole College Approach can be effective in supporting them.
Diane Dalby, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education at the University of Nottingham, said: “It has been encouraging to see how the WCA programme has helped colleges develop purposeful collaboration between maths and vocational staff and has supported the co-design of effective interventions to improve their maths provision. By working across traditional silo-structures and sharing different perspectives, staff have gained a better understanding of the problems and found new ways of tackling key issues such as student motivation and engagement collaboratively.”
In the WCA pilot project, which was delivered by the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Research in Mathematics Education (CRME) on behalf of the ETF, three elements were identified as being effective in guiding and supporting colleges through a process of organisational change:
- The support and guidance given by each college’s ‘critical friend’ (an academic at the University of Nottingham) was a key factor in the success. Participating colleges reported that having an external facilitator to work through the self-assessment tasks with them was an important early step. Through meetings with their critical friend, colleges reported that their thinking was challenged. They found the interaction and feedback to be an effective means of support that helped them review and refine their analysis of the problem and develop action plans with more focused and appropriate interventions.
- Colleges also agreed that the self-assessment activities were an important element of the programme. The first activity was useful in starting the group thinking about the context in which they were working and its contextual affordances and constraints. This was followed by activities to explore the college culture and use different perspectives to analyse the issues thoroughly. Colleges valued the way these tasks stimulated rich, purposeful discussion about the problems they wanted to address.
- Colleges found that the constitution of a cross-college team to collaborate and lead their college WCA was an essential element of the programme. It was important to include representatives from vocational and maths departments, including both managers and teachers, and to secure the active involvement of a senior leader.
This research project demonstrates that success in FE maths is down to more than just maths teaching. The Whole College Approach has proved to be an effective process for bringing people together from across a college to support improvement processes for maths.
Pardoe continued: "In doing so, it has achieved its objectives of translating MiFEC and other related ‘whole organisation’ research into practice; building sector knowledge about WCAs; and developing support mechanisms and producing support material. It has also identified moderating factors that can affect the implementation of the approach; such as college readiness and stability, time pressures and the extra pressure put on staff by the Covid pandemic.”
Case studies of several of the 16 colleges that participated in the project are available on the ETF website (Harlow College, Leyton Sixth Form College, Stamford College, the Lakes College, Weston College, and Wilberforce Sixth Form College).
For further details of the wider CfEM programme, please visit the CfEM resources and evidence hub.
Story credits
More information is available from Diane Dalby in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham at Diane.Dalby@nottingham.ac.uk
For further information about the Centres for Excellence in Maths (CfEM) programme, contact John Hilsdon at the Education and Training Foundation: john.hilsdon@etfoundation.co.uk
Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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