Studying advanced mathematics in England: findings from a survey of student choices and attitudes

ABSTRACT

The UK Government has set a goal that the “vast majority” of students in England will be studying mathematics to the age of 18 by the end of the decade. The policy levers for achieving this goal include new Core Maths qualifications, designed for over 200,000 students who have achieved good grades at the age of 16 but then opt out of advanced or A level mathematics. This article reports findings from a cluster-sampled survey of over 10,000 17-year-olds in England in 2015. Participants’ views on post-16 mathematics are presented and discussed. The main finding is that they are strongly opposed to the idea of compulsory mathematical study, but are less antithetical to being encouraged to study mathematics beyond 16. We consider how attitudes vary by gender, prior attainment, study patterns and future aspirations. The article considers the implications of these findings in the current policy landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Advanced mathematics
• core maths
• participation
• choice
• survey

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The REVAMP project (2013–16) weaves together four strands of quantitative analysis to understand the current and changing attitudes to, participation in, and value of A level mathematics. The project utilises 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 are: (1) Updated research on the ‘economic return’ to A level mathematics; (2) An investigation of the nature of changing participation in A level mathematics from 2005–13; (3) Modelling of the relationship between A level mathematics and outcomes in a range of science and social science degree level programmes; and (4) this large-scale survey of 17-year-olds. These threads are interwoven with a policy trajectory analysis that traces the value(s) attributed to A level mathematics.

2. A multilevel structure would allow us to look at the school-level variation as well as student-level variation, although this paper does not explore this aspect of the data.

3. Throughout the analysis ‘A Level Mathematics' includes the small numbers of student doing AS Use of Maths, Core Maths and other advanced mathematics qualifications.

4. Although the more usual clustering of STEM could be used, there is sufficient overlap of intentions between medicine, biosciences, pharmacy, etc. that it is appropriate to include Medicine. This acronym does appear as a wider umbrella but is admittedly less common than STEM.

Additional information

Funding

This research is part of the Rethinking the Value of Advanced Mathematics Participation project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation (EDU/41221). The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. More information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org.