Pauline Davis

The association between mathematics pedagogy and learners' dispositions for university study

We address the current concerns about teaching‐to‐the‐test and its association with declining dispositions towards further study of mathematics and the consequences for choice of STEM subjects at university. In particular, through a mixed study including a large survey sample of over 1000 students and their teachers, and focussed qualitative case studies, we explored the impact of ‘transmissionist’ pedagogic practices on learning outcomes. We report on the construction and validation of a scale to measure teachers’ self‐reported pedagogy. We then use this measure in combination with the students’ survey data and through regression modelling we illustrate significant associations between the pedagogic measure and students’ mathematics dispositions. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of these results for mathematics education and the STEM agenda.

Mathematics students’ aspirations for higher education: class, ethnicity, gender and interpretative repertoire styles

This paper reports how students talk about their aspirations in regard to higher education (HE) and their mathematics, what ‘repertoires’ they use to mediate this discourse, and how students’ predominant ‘repertoire style’ relates to their cultural background. Our analyses draw on an interview sample (n=40) of students selected because they are ‘on the cusp’ of participation or non‐participation in mathematically demanding programmes in further and higher education. The interviews explored the students’ aspirations for their future in general and HE in particular, influences on these choices, and the place of mathematics in these. Thematic analysis revealed four interpretative repertoires commonly in use, which we call ‘becoming successful’, ‘personal satisfaction’, ‘vocational’, and ‘idealist’ repertoires. Most of the sample was found to use a single, predominant repertoire, which we call their repertoire ‘style’: what is more, this style is found to be strongly related to background factors independently obtained. The implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Mathematics coursework as facilitator of formative assessment, student-centred activity and understanding

We seek to illuminate reasons why undertaking mathematics coursework assessment as part of an alternative post-compulsory, pre-university scheme led to higher rates of retention and completion than the traditional route. We focus on the students’ experience of mathematical activity during coursework tasks, which we observed to be qualitatively different to most of the other learning activities observed in lessons. Our analysis of interviews found that these activities offered: (i) a perceived greater depth of understanding; (ii) motivation and learning through modelling and use of technology; (iii) changes in pedagogies and learning activities that supported student-centred learning; and (iv) assessment that better suited some students. Teachers’ interviews reinforced these categories and highlighted some motivational aspects of learning that activity during coursework tasks appears to provide. Thus, we suggest that this experience offered some students different learning opportunities, and that this is a plausible factor in the relative success of these students.

Students' Production of Curricular Knowledge: Perspectives on Empowerment in Financial Capability Education.

The aim of this article is to extend our understanding of the relationship between knowledge of personal finance and empowerment. The analysis is based on interview data obtained as part of a longitudinal study of students, aged 16–19, who completed a financial capability course in the UK. The analysis presents a set of cultural models or storylines implied in student discourse about what it means to be financially capable. Possibilities for empowerment are interpreted from these cultural models with implications for how we define the boundaries of financial capability education. References to empowerment in terms of having a voice and feeling confident to make consumer decisions and to advise others in matters of finance were common across the interview data. However, a form of knowledge and empowerment that positioned students not as aware consumers but as individuals with a critical awareness of financial and economic systems was less evident.

Attitudes to reading: what can stories tell us?

Children’s attitudes to reading clearly influence their success in it and, while teachers have known this for some while, they have lacked easy ways of establishing what these attitudes are. Here Pauline Davis suggests one approach to this through story-telling.