Study title

The hypothesis if that the quality of a student's experience of, and engagement in, mathematics is critical to their developing disposition and 'identity', and so to their choices and subsequent success in mathematically demanding programmes (MDP) in HE. This project therefore focused on how different mathematics educational practices at A2/BTEC level and in transition to HE influence students' developing dispositions towards and decisions about MDP in HE. We focused on transitional practices and investigated their effects on learner identities, learning outcomes and decisions of students' in sociocultural and institutional contexts. Building on our previous TLRP project, its methodology, and the instruments it developed, this project had two distinct strands which inform each other. The survey tracked students longitudinally surveying a cohort of diverse students as they move from pre-university to the end of their first year at university (and beginning of the 2nd). This included measures of student's social and educational background, performance, disposition towards future study of, and perceived self-efficacy in mathematics, allowing us to measure the effect of programmes and practices on outcomes. This project focuses on how different mathematics educational practices at 16-19 influence students' developing dispositions towards and decisions about study in High Education, and students’ success in first year HE. A longitudinal survey will track a cohort of students learning outcomes and decisions as they move from Level 3 study to the end of their first year at university, and provide evidence of the effectiveness of programmes and transitional practices. Case Studies will draw on the stories of transition of 40 individual students' and related field studies in 4 universities and 8 Departments where different transition approaches are being practiced in regard to mathematics 'diagnostic assessment and targeted support', 'widening participation' and...