Mathematical needs: the mathematical needs of learners
The report is the result of a two-year investigation, which also looked at the mathematical needs of employers and of the learners themselves. Some of the key findings included:
We need more young people to know more mathematics and to be confident, robust and fluent in their use of it. Not only are university courses increasingly quantitative in content, but there is also a steady shift in the employment market away from manual and low skill jobs and toward those requiring higher levels of management expertise and problem-solving skills, many of which are mathematical in nature.
There are concerns that the current high stakes assessment system in the form of 'league tables', creates a situation where institutions are more accountable for results than for the mathematical understanding of their pupils. This has a detrimental effect on the ability of young people to apply mathematics and creates long-term problems in both the workplace and higher education.
Good mathematics learning needs knowledgeable teachers, who can draw on students' understanding, involve them in discussion, and engage all students in a variety of complex tasks in which mathematics is presented as a subject with many aspects. All teachers should be entitled to subject specific continuing professional development (CPD).
Changes in commonplace technology also affect the kinds of mathematical questions that can be asked and answered, and the way that mathematics is used in the workplace. Learners need to understand ideas and problems that could not even be asked by earlier generations, and to become adept at answering them by using, and developing, 21st century tools.
Employers highlighted that to use mathematics confidently at one level, experience of it at a higher level is required. However, a common concern is that the demands of 'performance tables' may be forcing schools to take low risk options and discourage students from taking higher levels of mathematics - either at GCSE or at A-level.
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