Improving participation rates in specialist mathematics after the subject ceases to be compulsory at age 16 is part of government policy in England. This article provides independent and recent support for earlier findings concerning reasons for non-participation, based on free response and closed items in a questionnaire with a sample of over 1500 students in 17 schools, close to the moment of choice. The analysis supports findings that perceived difficulty and lack of confidence are important reasons for students not continuing with mathematics, and that perceived dislike and boredom, and lack of relevance, are also factors. There is a close relationship between reasons for non-participation and predicted grade, and a weaker relation to gender. An analysis of the effects of schools, demonstrates that enjoyment is the main factor differentiating schools with high and low participation indices. Building on discussion of these findings, ways of improving participation are briefly suggested.
Increasingly, the mathematical subject knowledge required of teachers is described as lists of facts, skills and competencies. This listing appears unproblematic given the apparently rational nature of the subject. However, mathematics is often experienced as an intensely emotional subject. The focus of this article is shame: a reaction to other people's criticisms and an emotional response to knowing and doing mathematics. It is used as an analytical tool to explore the ways in which mathematics is known by primary school teachers. It is suggested that absolutist/product conceptions of mathematics provide ideal opportunities for experiencing shame and that, while shame can act as a positive motivational force, accessing it in this way is far from easy.'What does [shame] feel like?' he asked-and his mothers, seeing his bewilderment, essayed explanations. 'Your face gets hot,' said Bunny-the-youngest, 'but your heart starts shivering.' 'It makes women feel like to cry and die,' said Chhunni-ma, 'but men, it makes them go wild.' 'Except sometimes,' his middle mother muttered with prophetic spite, 'it happens the other way around.' (Rushdie, 1983, pp. 38-93) Joanna: I felt like my voice was a bit shaky because I wasn't really sure, you know, whether I was right. That's what I want to be-right-and I wasn't sure whether I was right.
This article examines the policy of the UK Labour Government between 1997 and in relation to the production and implementation of the National Numeracy Strategy, within the structure of context of in uence, context of policy texts and context of practice. It examines its roots in, and differences from, numeracy and mathematics policies of previous regimes. Some tensions between the philosophies of modernisation and traditionalism, which are represented among those responsible for the New Labour education policies and which are re ected in the National Numeracy Strategy are discussed. Finally, evidence from the context of practice demonstrates that despite the attempt at tight prescription and control, cyclical recontextualisation and multiple interpretations exist.· the context of in uence, where 'public policy is normally initiated' and 'policy discourses are constructed'
This paper challenges notions that pedagogy is predominantly rational, conscious and deliberate. Drawing on two research projects about experiences of learning in primary and secondary schools, the paper explores pedagogic relationships and the ways these structure and enable different kinds of learning and knowledge creation. The data are read with (Felman, 1987) the psychoanalytic writings of Wilfred Bion to investigate the ways in which knowing and learning are bound up in the unconscious emotional flows of classroom relationships. A learner centred understanding of pedagogy is tentatively and critically developed. The desirability and some simultaneous difficulties of working with such notions of pedagogy are discussed.
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