Education Endowment Foundation:Maths in Context

Maths in Context

Young Enterprise
Implementation costThe cost estimates in the Toolkits are based on the average cost of delivering the intervention.
Evidence strengthThis rating provides an overall estimate of the robustness of the evidence, to help support professional decision-making in schools.
Impact (months)The impact measure shows the number of additional months of progress made, on average, by children and young people who received the intervention, compared to similar children and young people who did not.
0
months
Project info

Independent Evaluator

University of Nottingham logo
University of Nottingham
Using real world contexts to teach GCSE maths
Pupils: 11989 Schools: 130 Grant: £453,099
Key Stage: 4 Duration: 6 year(s) 5 month(s) Type of Trial: Efficacy Trial
Completed September 2022

Young Enterprise: Mathematics in Context is designed to improve pupils’ financial capability, and specifically their financial knowledge and understanding, applied numeracy and problem-solving skills.

The intervention targets all pupils over the two years of GCSE assessment. The programme comprises of teacher professional development and detailed lesson plans and materials for 12 lessons to be taught during Year 10. The lessons are designed to embed the maths topic in a context that had either immediate interest or potential interest in the near future. Lesson plans gave the teacher a high level of support about how to run the lesson and gave advice about financial aspects. Teachers are encouraged to continue teaching mathematics in financial contexts in Year 11.

This trial was co-funded by the Money and Pensions Service as part of an EEF mini-themed round on financial education and attainment

Research suggests that financial capability is an important life-skill and is likely to make a significant difference to young people’s life chances, particularly those from the most disadvantaged groups. Financial education is, however, relatively poorly understood with little rigorous evidence.

Mathematics in Context is based on an earlier project funded by the London Schools Excellence Fund, which was developed by the charity Young Enterprise. This earlier project involved a small-scale evaluation of the impact on pupil attainment involving comparison of the intervention group (260 pupils) to a control group (101 pupils) who were taught by the same teachers. The intervention group made greater gains on a levelled GCSE-based assessment of their mathematics.

Our evaluation is the first large-scale randomised control trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of the programme. Our trial involved 125 schools and approximately 11,989 pupils in Year 10. The independent evaluation found that schools that received Mathematics in Context made, on average, the equivalent of zero months’ progress in mathematics (the primary outcome) compared to pupils in other schools. This result has a high security rating: 4 out of 5 on the EEF padlock scale.

The process evaluation found that teachers showed a high level of support for the intervention. Eighty-one percent reported that they believed the intervention improved pupils’ understanding and learning of financial literacy. Close to half of lead teachers felt that lessons had improved pupils’ attitudes towards mathematics.

The EEF has no plans for further trials of Mathematics in Context at this stage.

  1. Pupils in the MiC schools made no additional progress in Mathematics attainment compared to pupils in the other schools. This result has a high security rating.
  2. Pupils in the MiC schools made no additional progress on questions in GCSE Mathematics involving problem-solving or in contexts involving money, or in financial literacy, compared to pupils in the other schools.
  3. Pupils eligible for FSM in the MiC schools made no additional progress in Mathematics attainment at GCSE compared to FSM-eligible pupils in the other schools.
  4. Teachers showed a high level of support for the MiC intervention. Eighty-one percent reported that they believed the intervention improved pupils’ understanding and learning of financial literacy. Close to half of lead teachers felt that lessons had improved pupils’ attitudes towards Mathematics.
  5. The MiC intervention was carried out with high levels of compliance in terms of delivery and high fidelity in terms of the lesson aims and design. Teachers reported that the training, support and resources supplied made the intervention easy to deliver.
Outcome/​Group
ImpactThe size of the difference between pupils in this trial and other pupils
SecurityHow confident are we in this result?
GCSE Mathematics standardised raw score (z-score by board and tier)
0
Months' progress
(Effect size 0.02)
GCSE Mathematics standardised raw score – Free School Meal (FSM) pupils
0
Months' progress
(Effect size 0.03)