Maths Mastery: How are we doing?
Can the recently released report, “Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2023: National report for England”, provide any insights?
“Year 5 pupils in England at the lower end of the distributions (the 5th percentile) achieved an average score of 411 in 2019 and 393 in 2023, a significant decrease of 18 scale points. At the top end of the distribution (the 95th percentile), pupils achieved an average score of 693 in 2019 and 695 in 2023, a small increase of 2 scale points. In combination, these average score changes have increased the achievement gap by 20 scale points from 282 in 2019 to 302 in 2023. This represents a further widening of the gap from TIMSS 2015 when it was 275 scale points.” (p.52)
My attention was drawn to this particular finding as it may provide some insight into how the large-scale intervention in our schools based on mastery at the core of the work of NCETM in Primary schools is playing out. "Mathematics teaching for mastery assumes everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics."
As always interpreting results of such a large scale study as TIMSS is tricky but as the authors report (and newspapers followed up) headline figures look good for England when compared with outcomes for other countries: “In 2023, pupils in England performed, on average, significantly above the TIMSS centrepoint (500) in mathematics and science in both years 5 and 9."
"They also performed significantly above the 2023 international mean in both subjects and both year groups. Comparing England's pupils' overall performance in 2023 with 2019, year 5 pupils' performance remained stable in mathematics…” (p.6)
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But what about the range of scores over time...
"Year 5 pupils in England at the lower end of the distributions (the 5th percentile) achieved an average score of 411 in 2019 and 393 in 2023, a significant decrease of 18 scale points. At the top end of the distribution (the 95th percentile), pupils achieved an average score of 693 in 2019 and 695 in 2023, a small increase of 2 scale points. In combination, these average score changes have increased the achievement gap by 20 scale points from 282 in 2019 to 302 in 2023. This represents a further widening of the gap from TIMSS 2015 when it was 275 scale points." (p.52)
So, we have stable performance in mathematics from 2019 to 2023 for Year 5 students, but with a widening gap between the highest and lowest scoring pupils over the same period.?
What are the implications in terms of “mastery”?? Who does it serve well?
Lecturer in Mathematics Education at University College London, Institute of Education
3 个月Interesting Geoff. I wonder if there is any way of telling how many of the Y5 pupils are being taught by teachers engaging with NCETM’s programme in some way. The Mastering Number intervention for KS1 now skews school engagement figures and even if schools are counted as engaging, that does not be nessarily mean all teachers in the school are adopting “teaching for mastery” and then even if they are (and that is possibly a smaller number than we think we know) the extent to which TfM is interpreted and implemented in a way aligned with the principles is likely variable. So I wonder to what extent we can really attribute these outcomes in TIMSS to “mastery”. I was struck by this year’s KS2 QLA and how questions involving geometric knowledge or reasoning were not well answered nationally compared with arithmetic problems. I wonder whether the TIMSS data might suggest the same. The DfE non-statutory guidance for teaching mathematics that was published around the time of “Covid recovery” prioritised number over geometry (written in partnership with NCETM personnel) and the NCETM spine materials, meant as PD resources for teachers but adopted by schools as a curriculum do not address all aspects of geometry.