Background
to the study

The Mastering Maths research builds on a long tradition of research based in the Centre for Research in Maths Education at the University of Nottingham, formerly known as the Shell Centre. It goes way back, but here are some recent examples: the Standards Unit, the Mathematics Assessment Project and Maths for Life. Much of the Shell Centre’s work focused on Post-16 GCSE and the Standards Unit materials were based on materials developed for and with the post-16 sector. The Maths for Life project was a major research project involving the development of research lessons (often based on Standards Unit materials) but reviewed and revised specifically for GCSE resits. It also involved professional development using a lesson study model, much as we are going to use lesson study in Mastering Maths. 

Most recently, the University of Nottingham was involved in the Centres for Excellence in Maths initiative, playing a major role in many aspects of the project such as the action research, developing the handbooks and running the pilot trials in four themes in the early days. 

In 2021-22 the University ran a mastery efficacy Randomised Controlled Trial which involved three groups – business as usual (control), partial intervention and full intervention. The partial intervention group teachers were given five mastery lessons to teach in five windows. The full intervention group teachers were given the same five lessons to teach in the same five windows, but they also took part in five lesson study cluster meetings. 

In the efficacy trial, the GCSE scores of students of teachers in the partial and full intervention groups were compared to the scores of students of teachers in the control group. There was no significant difference between the scores in the partial intervention group and the control group, but the difference between the full intervention group and the control group was bigger and can be seen as the equivalent of an extra month’s teaching and learning. For the most deprived students in the full intervention group there was an even bigger difference which is the equivalent of two extra months. You can read the report from the trial here.