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The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics

This project focuses on teaching and learning in primary mathematics (5–11-year-olds) in England. Following longstanding concerns about mathematics attainment and drawing on evidence from international comparisons of teaching practices in high-performing jurisdictions, the Department for Education (...

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Main Authors: Rachel Marks, Nancy Barclay, Alison Barnes, Becky Allen, Colin Foster, Jeremy Hodgen
Format: Default Report
Published: 2023
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2134/22656589.v1
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author Rachel Marks
Nancy Barclay
Alison Barnes
Becky Allen
Colin Foster
Jeremy Hodgen
author_facet Rachel Marks
Nancy Barclay
Alison Barnes
Becky Allen
Colin Foster
Jeremy Hodgen
author_sort Rachel Marks (7157783)
collection Figshare
description This project focuses on teaching and learning in primary mathematics (5–11-year-olds) in England. Following longstanding concerns about mathematics attainment and drawing on evidence from international comparisons of teaching practices in high-performing jurisdictions, the Department for Education (DfE) invested substantial funding from 2016 – instigated through the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and its Maths Hubs – in providing primary schools in England with support to purchase DfE-approved textbook-schemes for teaching mathematics. This was a bold and interesting move. Textbook use is somewhat controversial in primary mathematics in England, with textbooks tending to take a marginal role rather than being the main basis for instruction. Primary teachers have traditionally curated curriculum resources from a range of places. While there has been some concern about the quality of some resources, there has been little focus on developing high quality primary mathematics textbooks. Previously available textbooks were assessed as unstructured, simple, and routine, with a focus on repetition of procedures rather than application and investigation. Concerns have been such that the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills(Ofsted) in its earlier inspections suggested teachers were over-reliant on such textbooks. The DfE initiative to bring textbook-schemes into schools represents a substantial change, organisationally, culturally, and pedagogically, from what was happening in many primary schools. With no recent research to help us understand how such textbook-schemes might be received in England, or the broader landscape of teachers’ mathematics curriculum resource choices into which they are being parachuted, the DfE initiative raised many questions.
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institution Loughborough University
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spelling rr-article-226565892023-04-01T00:00:00Z The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics Rachel Marks (7157783) Nancy Barclay (8291097) Alison Barnes (3483836) Becky Allen (15318958) Colin Foster (6064118) Jeremy Hodgen (7157780) Education Numeracy Pedagogy Primary education <p>This project focuses on teaching and learning in primary mathematics (5–11-year-olds) in England. Following longstanding concerns about mathematics attainment and drawing on evidence from international comparisons of teaching practices in high-performing jurisdictions, the Department for Education (DfE) invested substantial funding from 2016 – instigated through the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and its Maths Hubs – in providing primary schools in England with support to purchase DfE-approved textbook-schemes for teaching mathematics.</p> <p>This was a bold and interesting move. Textbook use is somewhat controversial in primary mathematics in England, with textbooks tending to take a marginal role rather than being the main basis for instruction. Primary teachers have traditionally curated curriculum resources from a range of places. While there has been some concern about the quality of some resources, there has been little focus on developing high quality primary mathematics textbooks. Previously available textbooks were assessed as unstructured, simple, and routine, with a focus on repetition of procedures rather than application and investigation. Concerns have been such that the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills(Ofsted) in its earlier inspections suggested teachers were over-reliant on such textbooks.</p> <p>The DfE initiative to bring textbook-schemes into schools represents a substantial change, organisationally, culturally, and pedagogically, from what was happening in many primary schools. With no recent research to help us understand how such textbook-schemes might be received in England, or the broader landscape of teachers’ mathematics curriculum resource choices into which they are being parachuted, the DfE initiative raised many questions.</p> 2023-04-01T00:00:00Z Text Report 2134/22656589.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/report/The_prevalence_and_use_of_textbooks_and_curriculum_resources_in_primary_mathematics/22656589 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
spellingShingle Education
Numeracy
Pedagogy
Primary education
Rachel Marks
Nancy Barclay
Alison Barnes
Becky Allen
Colin Foster
Jeremy Hodgen
The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title_full The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title_fullStr The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title_full_unstemmed The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title_short The prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
title_sort prevalence and use of textbooks and curriculum resources in primary mathematics
topic Education
Numeracy
Pedagogy
Primary education
url https://hdl.handle.net/2134/22656589.v1