Mastering Maths Evaluation

About the study

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) have asked the National Centre of Social Research (NatCen) to evaluate Mastering Maths, a training programme for maths teachers who are teaching lessons to post-16 students who are retaking their GCSE Maths exams. Mastering Maths adopts research-informed approaches, underpinned by five key principles around developing deep understanding of mathematics and teaching that takes into account the needs of students.

The findings from our evaluation will help inform future programmes and policy which are designed to increase student’s confidence and ability in maths. It will enable EEF and the developers of the programme (University of Nottingham) to assess how effective Mastering Maths is. 

Who is carrying out the research?

The evaluation is being carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen). NatCen is Britain’s largest and oldest social research organisation. We have delivered several school-based studies for charities and the government about what works in education, and are experts at research that involves pupils, young people and teachers. We are a non-profit organisation, independent of government departments and political parties.

The University of Nottingham are responsible for developing the programme, recruiting for the evaluation, and development and delivery of the training. They have previously conducted an efficacy trial of Mastering Maths which showed promising results.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) are responsible for funding the study and overall management of programme delivery and evaluation. The EEF is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. They run projects to test the effectiveness of education programmes to improve outcomes for children across the UK.

What does taking part involve?

Further Education (FE) colleges

Up to two maths teachers from each setting will be recruited to take part in the evaluation. 

Delivery of the Mastering Maths programme will be randomised so that 50% of teachers are assigned to an intervention group and 50% to a control group. The teachers in the control group will continue to teach as they usually do. By nominating two teachers to take part, a setting is guaranteed to have one that receives the intervention.

The teachers in the intervention group will attend two days of face-to-face regional professional development, run by teams of experienced Lead Teachers (in October 2024). The professional development will explore the Mastering Maths approach and introduce a form of professional development known as lesson study, in which a member of the group teaches a Mastering Maths lesson, the whole group observes and discusses the lesson, and the Lead Teacher discusses in detail the next lesson to be taught.

Over the period November 2024 to March/April 2025, teachers in the intervention group will take part in five lesson study group meetings run by one of the Lead Teachers. Typically, these will be day-long meetings, and will take place in the college setting in which the research lesson is taught.

Teachers will teach five Mastering Maths lessons, developed by the University of Nottingham, chosen by the lesson study group. They will teach the five lessons to all their GCSE classes and will be expected to adopt Mastering Maths approaches in all their lessons.

All schools in the evaluation will be asked to:

• Circulate student information letters provided by NatCen
• Share information about participating students with NatCen
• Share students’ raw GCSE maths schools with NatCen
• Have teachers complete a survey, and help administer a student survey

Teachers assigned to the intervention will be asked to:

• Take part in the Mastering Maths programme. This includes:
  • Teaching five lessons to all of their GCSE Maths resit classes, approximately one per month
  • Take part in five lesson study meetings, approximately one per month
• (If selected) Facilitate case study data collection, whereby NatCen will come into your school, observe a lesson and a lesson study group, and conduct an interview with a teacher and two students in their class. This will form a more in-depth case study. 

Teachers assigned to the control will be asked to:

• Continue teaching as usual
• (If selected) Facilitate case study data collection, whereby NatCen will come into your school, observe a lesson, and conduct an interview with a teacher and two students in their class. This will form a more in-depth case study.

Students

All students aged 16-19 who are enrolled in the classes of participating teachers, and who are resitting their GCSE Maths exam can take part in the evaluation. Those who are no longer in the teacher’s class after the November GCSE Maths resit results will be excluded from the evaluation.

Those who take part will have their data shared with NatCen. This includes their full name, date of birth, postcode, Unique Learner Number and their GCSE Maths score. NatCen will then link the student’s data with other information about the student, which will be accessed from the National Pupil Database. This will include their past free school meal eligibility and their attainment in KS2 and KS4 maths.

At a later point, if students are taking part in a class where their maths teacher has been selected for a more in-depth case study, the student will be asked to take part in an interview alongside one of their peers. 

Students will also be asked to complete a student survey, which will capture their attitudes to maths. 

What will happen to any information I give?

The information that we collect will be used for evaluation purposes only. We will not use the names of teachers, schools, staff members or pupils when reporting our findings. All information will be treated confidentially. All data will be transferred and stored securely in accordance with GDPR, and personal information and any other data held on the project will be archived for research purposes and then NatCen will securely delete any data they hold once the evaluation is complete.

Data from the evaluation will be shared with the Department for Education and the Office for National Statistics. It will also be stored in the Education Endowment Foundation archive (managed by FFT Education) where other research teams can access it. This data will be pseudonymised, which means that any information that might identify an individual teacher or pupil will be removed before the data is shared with the other organisations. Data may also be shared in an anonymised form with other research terms in the future.

You can find further information about data collection, sharing and storing in the Privacy Notice.

Contact us