Psychological Imprisonment or Intellectual Freedom? A Longitudinal Study of Contrasting School Mathematics Approaches and Their Impacton Adults' Lives

Abstract

In a previous study of 2 schools in England that taught mathematics very differently, the first author found that a project-based mathematics approach resulted in higher achievement, greater understanding, and more appreciation of mathematics than a traditional approach. In this follow-up study, the first author contacted and interviewed a group of adults 8 years after they had left the 2 schools to investigate their knowledge use in life. This showed that the young adults who had experienced the 2 mathematics teaching approaches developed profoundly different relationships with mathematics knowledge that contributed towards the shaping of different identities as learners and users of mathematics (Boaler & Greeno, 2000). The adults from the project-based school had also moved into significantly more professional jobs, despite living in one of the lowest income areas of the country. In this article, we consider the different opportunities that the 2 school approaches offered for longterm relationships with mathematics and different forms of mathematical expertise that are differentially useful in the 21st century (Hatano & Oura, 2003).

The symbolic violence of setting: A Bourdieusian analysis of mixed methods data on secondary students’ views about setting

“…Belfi et al, 2012) and less favourable life outcomes. For instance, Boaler and Selling (2017) point to the differing outcomes for two student cohorts (who had been initially matched for attainment and social background), whereby those who had been taught mathematics in mixed-attainment classes using problem-solving and projectwork approaches had notably improved employment outcomes (as well as higher school mathematics attainment) than those who experienced a more didactic teaching approach within attainment sets. Interestingly, the mixed-attainment approach was also associated with less pronounced patterns in attainment by social class, gender and ethnicity.…”

Embedding problem-solving in a primary mathematics programme

“…The interesting idea here is that if teachers try and change a mathematics programme and find that the change has been too rapid (e.g., for parents), it is possible to create an intermediate step/programme that maintains some aspects of what is being aimed for (e.g., catering for a diversity of learning needs), while temporarily compromising on other aspects (e.g., the use of problems and rich tasks). Preliminary data suggests that it will be possible to weave together aspects of both approaches in a way that responds to concerns while also moving towards a way of teaching mathematics that is known to support children's chances in life (Boaler & Selling, 2017).…”

“Indefensible, Illogical, and Unsupported”; Countering Deficit Mythologies about the Potential of Students with Learning Disabilities in Mathematics

“…They suggest that we need to consider the long-term time scale: inquiry mathematics allows students to take on agentic roles in relationship to mathematics and offers potential for long-term engagement with the subject [12]. When instructional decisions are focused on narrow time scales, rather than the long-term goals of developing agency and empowerment, we lose the forest for the trees.…”

“…Students with LD, as well as those who are labeled as low achieving in mathematics, are offered a more procedural mathematics when compared to their peers [6,7]. The documented positive outcomes of an inquiry approach to mathematics, not only in mathematical knowledge [8][9][10][11], but in developing student identities as agentic problem-solvers and a positive relationship towards mathematics [12,13], mean that we can no longer allow such beliefs to curtail the mathematical potential of students with LD.…”