Students' attitudes can be influential in the emotions experienced in mathematics learning and achievement at school. Two important judgements, according to Control-Value Theory are degree of control a student has over, and the value attached to, learning activities or outcomes. Appraisals of control and value are believed to play a central role…

On the basis of a substantial, robust, and well-replicated cognitive science research literature, interleaving has been recommended across a range of professional pedagogical works as an evidence-based strategy for mathematics teachers. This report first notes the conflation of interleaving and spacing effects underpinning those recommendations…

In this study we aim to characterize a way of proving which can be produced in a primary mathematics classroom and explore the factors that influence these processes and lead to changes in the way of proving. Assuming proving as a socially embedded activity, we conceptualize it as the interplay between 'construction' and 'substantiation' based on…

Research Findings: Children are increasingly using touchscreen technologies at home, which has become a recurring feature within their classroom too. Research has investigated the potential effect of using computer-based tests to assess pupils' performance rather than traditional paper tests. An agreement has still not been formed about the impact…

In this paper, drawing on semi-structured interviews with generalist teachers of year-one children in England and Sweden, we examine comparatively the influence of the intended curriculum (teachers in both countries work within mandated national curricula) and the received curriculum (the collectively assumed efficacious practices and goals handed…

England's schooling landscape is being remodelled and the move from hierarchical to heterarchical modes of governance has implications for systemic change strategies. Balancing local and networked autonomy with centralising policies complexifies choices for schools, creating tensions that this article explores through the context of curriculum…

In this paper, we report an enquiry into elementary preservice teachers' learning, as they engage in doing mathematics for themselves. As a group of researchers working in elementary Initial Teacher Education in English universities, we co-planned and taught sessions on growing pattern generalisation. Following the sessions, interviews of fifteen…

Global policy transfer has become increasingly popular in recent years, and one recent example of such policy transfer is the England-China Teacher Exchange, which was initiated in 2014 with the explicit aim of raising attainment in maths in English primary schools by trialling concepts used in Shanghai schools, Shanghai rising to the top of the…

Research and education stakeholders in the United Kingdom (UK) acknowledge math anxiety as a detriment to learning math and associated with performance deficits, avoidance, and limiting career opportunities. Support approaches and strategies have typically focused on instruction and emotion regulation, but not necessarily in younger children using…

Many primary school students have difficulties understanding mathematical equivalence with considerably poorer performance in some countries than in others. However, students' formal understanding of equivalence has significant and long-lasting effects, as it predicts arithmetic and algebra achievement throughout school years. Currently, little is…

Unfavorable test-taking behaviors, such as speededness and disengagement, have long been a validity concern for large-scale low-stakes assessments. Understanding the presence and extent of such behaviors is important for ensuring the validity of inferences based on test scores. This study examined test-taking behaviors using item response time…

The use of teaching assistants (TAs) is widespread in many education systems, but the ways that TAs can support learning effectively are poorly understood. Much evidence indicates that most TA support has no, or negative, effects on pupil attainment. A small but growing body of evidence shows that structured TA intervention programmes can be…

In this paper, we examine the national curricula for primary mathematics for each of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) for the estimation-related opportunities they offer children. Framed against four conceptually and procedurally different forms of estimation (computational,…

This article focuses on the validity of the students' attitudes toward mathematics scale based on data from TIMSS 2019. The scale has been reported as having a three-factor structure for decades, but this study assumes the validity can appear differently depending on the country or culture. Thus, the scale should first be checked for invariance…

School life in England (and beyond) is temporally structured, with learning planned as a time-limited activity, both within lessons and across units of work. Discourses of performativity and measurement pervade school life in many societies and, what we call "regulated time" controls school-based learning. In particular, primary…