The rationale for this study is to examine the under-researched area of the relationship between recent national policy reforms around the curriculum and secondary school practice in relation to GCSE mathematics interventions for underachieving students in the UK. This has been an area of concern for some time, especially for teachers, as much previous research has focused on educational outcomes and barriers to learning rather than the learning processes involved. This study involves researching the theme of mathematics intervention provision in one secondary school and will examine school responses, as well as teacher and student perspectives and aims to answer the central research question: given the nature of secondary schools in England, why and in what ways do students underachieve and disengage in GCSE mathematics and what, if any, is the impact of interventions with students and teachers? The research findings in this study will contribute to the disciplines of education and mathematics primarily and several related sub-disciplines.
Three socio-mathematical norms, coherency, justification, and computational strategies were identified in the intervention phases. To establish these norms, the teachers, in the study, employed direct prompts and modelling. Therefore, one of the teachers and myself established a conducive environment, systematically taught the students mathematical skills and used practices that built upon each other in our concept-focused use of mathematical tasks. The results of this study offer insight into how mathematical discussions, tasks, and practices can be more optimally conceptualised. They also underscore the importance of the teacher’s subject knowledge in enabling these norms to emerge.
The literature draws mainly from the areas of education, education policy, secondary education mathematics education, teacher pedagogy, academic intervention strategies and evaluative studies in school and underachievement in them. Key policy documents and scholarly literature at regional, national, and international levels of analysis are reviewed. From this, two divergent models of secondary school intervention approach emerged: the traditional transmission model which links more to an ‘outcomes’ approach which is exogenously driven by a managerialist state paradigm versus the student-centred connectionist approach favoured for this study driven by the professional approach of the teachers, which is more focused on the endogenous environment of the school. Such approaches to intervention strategies within secondary schools are at the nexus of this debate. One overarching theoretical model which provides a way of conceptualising student mathematics intervention strategies within the complex endogenous and exogenous landscape of secondary education is the Health Promoting School (WHO, 1998) which adopts a school approach to change in terms of the interconnectedness of the curriculum, teaching and learning, environment and ethos but, also, significantly, family and community partnerships. This collaborative working with external stakeholders is a vital aspect in relation to the usefulness of this model for analytical purposes and the interrelatedness of the micro, meso and macro levels.
In terms of methodology, this study adopts a mainly qualitative approach in the interpretivist and constructivist epistemological tradition, using an action research approach and mixed research methods. Fieldwork involving a sample of five teacher and ten student participants was undertaken. This included two focus group interviews with students, two semi- structured one-to-one interviews with teachers, and one classroom observation. Data were gathered in Majac Secondary School from students of similar demographics and socioeconomic characteristics, including both high-and low-achieving students. Several additional qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used, including school institutional documentation review. In addition, data were also gathered in action research cycles evident in the two intervention chapters.
Key findings focus on the significant impact of mathematics strategies at the school meso level and demonstrate that there have been many changes in practice at this level, to accommodate changes in policy at national macro level, and, also as a consequence, changes at the student micro level. Specifically, the case study secondary school has engaged in extensive institutional environmental planning and has developed a range of policies, structures and processes for the implementation of intervention strategies in practice. In addition, the school has responded to national policy by adapting or re-structuring curricula and learning opportunities for greater access by underachieving students to interventions and a range of new collaborative partnerships have successfully evolved. These findings suggest that intervention strategies have resulted in a degree of change at the level of the school as an institution, although there was some evidence of continuity of existing and more traditional practices.
Hands-on activities, a cooperative environment and teachers’ understanding of concepts being taught are cited as the some of the recommendations about the success of interventions undertaken in this research study.
Keywords: socio-mathematics, achievement, intervention, performance, cooperative learning
