Legacy projects
Since the Shell Centre for Mathematical Education was founded in 1967, at least £40 million (at today’s prices) has been invested in research and development projects in mathematics education at the University of Nottingham. This includes dozens of projects, funded my many different organisations, undertaken both nationally and internationally.
This portfolio of projects includes many that have taken an ‘engineering approach’ to the design of education materials, together with the more recent growth of evaluation, experimental and observational research studies.
In time, the Observatory team will publish a comprehensive account of the history of the research in mathematical education at the University of Nottingham. In the meantime, below are some links to a few of the more recent, relevant and influential projects, in addition to the three projects on the Observatory homepage.
Centres for Excellence in Maths: 2018-2023
The DfE-funded Centres for Excellence in Maths (CfEM) programme set out to improve mathematics education for students resitting GCSEs in further education colleges. The University of Nottingham had a central role in the programme, leading an ambitious programme of research in two main strands:
- Running a large-scale trial of an intervention on approaches to teaching mathematics in further education.
- Establishing a model for a Whole College Approach to mathematics.
The team also provided expert advice to develop handbooks and materials for the sector, and had significant input into an extensive programme of teacher professional development.
During 2021-22 the research team undertook a large-scale randomised controlled trial of their design of a programme for Teaching for Mastery. The outcomes of this trial suggested that the programme led to increases in attainment at GCSE. These findings have precipitated the Mastering Mathematics project which is starting in 2024.
Find out more at the Project website
Read the final report of the Teaching Mastery programme
Mathematics in Further Education Colleges: 2017-2020
The Nuffield-funded MiFEC project set out to produce robust, evidence-based advice for policymakers, college managers and practitioners on the pressing issue of how to improve the quality of mathematics education in England’s further education colleges.
The project employed a mixed-methods research design to investigate the complex interplay between factors that directly or indirectly affect students’ mathematical trajectories, outcomes and vocational learning. It assessed the effectiveness of current policies and practices and the key issues framing mathematics education in colleges.
A multi-scale, systems approach was used to investigate different strata of FE mathematics education: the national policy landscape, patterns of learner engagement over time; college level policy enactment and curriculum implementation; teacher workforce skills and motivations; and student learning of mathematics in vocational contexts.
For further information see the project website
The Maths-for-Life project investigated the effectiveness of a professional development programme that aimed to improve outcomes in GCSE resit examinations. It was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation. The project builds on earlier work by the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education at the University of Nottingham which had developed a wide range of resources to support dialogic teaching. In particular it used the widely distributed Standards Unit Box (Improving Learning in Mathematics) and other resources developed over many years by Malcolm Swan and colleagues.
In the first phase of the project (2017-18), a team of maths leads drawn from colleges and schools in the post-16 sector worked with the Nottingham team to develop the professional development programme. This focused on five key areas of the GCSE curriculum that underpin learning of mathematics and which are proven to present students with difficulties and affect GCSE performance. It also developed five 'signature' pedagogies that support dialogic teaching. The programme encouraged collaborative work with colleagues by including a modified element of lesson study.
In the second year of the project (2018-19) a randomised controlled trial of the professional development programme was undertaken. This involved approximately 50 teachers in the intervention programme led by the lead teachers developed in phase one, and an equivalent number of teachers’ students who will experience 'business as usual'.
Find out more at the project website
Rethinking the Value of Advanced Mathematics Participation: 2013-16
This Nuffield-funded study integrated four strands of quantitative analysis to understand changing attitudes to, participation in, and value of A level mathematics. It used high-quality secondary datasets and includes a large-scale survey of 17-year-olds’ understandings of the value of mathematics in their educational and life choices and aspirations. The four quantitative strands of the project were:
- Updated research on the ‘economic return’ to A level mathematics
- An investigation of the nature of changing participation in A level mathematics from 2005-13
- Modelling of the relationship between A level mathematics and outcomes in a range of science and social science degree level programmes
- A large-scale survey of 17-year-olds.
These quantitative studies were combined with a policy trajectory analysis that traced the values attributed to A level mathematics, in particular its economic value.
To find out more visit the project website