Breakell, John; (2002) The teaching of mathematics in schools in England and Wales during the early years of the Schools Council 1964 to 1975. Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the teaching of mathematics for pupils up to 16 years of age in schools in England and Wales during the early years of the Schools Council, 1964 to 1975. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first is introductory and includes a review of conceptual points and of major primary and secondary sources. The second chapter examines issues in the control of the school curriculum in the first 60 years of the twentieth century and describes the establishment of the Schools Council and its predecessor the Curriculum Study Group. Chapter three presents the results of an analysis of 176 mathematics text and reference books in use in schools in the early 1960s. The following three chapters provide detailed information about three major projects of the time: the Schools Mathematics Project which generated modem mathematics curriculum content directed initially at pupils in selective secondary schools, the Mathematics for the Majority Project, which concentrated on provision for pupils of average or below average ability, aged 13 to 16 years and the Nuffield Foundation Primary Mathematics Project, which focused on promoting changes in the methodology of teaching the subject. The major conclusions are that the survey of the books indicates that teachers favoured both traditional content and delivery. However, a number of primary schools were experimenting with new methodologies of teaching, persuaded by the influential recommendations of the Nuffield Project, whilst some secondary schools were introducing new content, nourished by the output of the popular Schools Mathematics Project. The School Mathematics and Nuffield Projects were important and successful contributors to radical changes in curriculum content and delivery, both immediately and in the long term. Enhanced content, first introduced by the former, forms part of secondary school curricula today, whilst the latter continues to influence current classroom practice.

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