Enrolment, achievement and retention on 'traditional' and 'Use of Mathematics' pre-university courses

This paper investigates enrolment, attainment and drop-out rates for two different English pre-university advanced mathematics, AS-level, courses, a 'traditional' and an innovative 'Use of Mathematics' pre-university course. Very different student profiles were found for those en...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in mathematics education Vol. 13; no. 2; pp. 147 - 168
Main Authors: Hutcheson, Graeme D., Pampaka, Maria, Williams, Julian
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis Group 01.07.2011
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Achievement
AS-level
Attainment
College students
Colleges & universities
Compulsory education
Contextual factors
drop-out
Dropping out
Education policy
Enrollments
enrolment
GCSE
Mathematics
Mathematics education
mathematics programmes
Pupils
Retention
Student retention
Students
ISSN:1479-4802, 1754-0178
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper investigates enrolment, attainment and drop-out rates for two different English pre-university advanced mathematics, AS-level, courses, a 'traditional' and an innovative 'Use of Mathematics' pre-university course. Very different student profiles were found for those enrolled on each course, and a model of attainment at the pre-university level showed a relatively complex relationship with prior achievement at the end of compulsory schooling. Although those pupils who had relatively high prior achievement tended also to achieve relatively highly on the pre-university courses, this relationship was not evident for lower scores. Those pupils with 'mid-range' prior attainment tended to make the smallest gains. Taking prior attainment into account, the difference in attainment outcomes between the two courses is small. However, these courses do differ with respect to the number of students retained, with the 'Use of Mathematics' course retaining a significantly higher proportion of the students. Contextual factors are discussed, suggesting implications for policy and practice in mathematics education.
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ISSN:1479-4802
1754-0178
DOI:10.1080/14794802.2011.585827