Understanding and Addressing the Deficiencies in UK Mathematics Education: Taking an International Perspective

Abstract

This paper reflects on UK mathematics education following the poor performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) metric, which compares reading, science, and mathematics across 27 countries. We compared a range of features within secondary school mathematics in the UK with the countries outperforming the UK. We note disparities in the depth of the curriculum and the use of high-stakes testing which could be disadvantaging UK students. We also reflect on key factors that may underpin teacher effectiveness in the UK, including teacher expectations, in part driven by early use of ability sets, a lack of teacher autonomy, and poor continuous professional development. On this basis, we make several recommendations to strengthen UK mathematics education.