Education Endowment Foundation:Realistic Maths Education

Realistic Maths Education

Manchester Metropolitan University
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.Not given for this trial
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

A trial of Realistic Maths Education, an approach to teaching mathematical problem solving.
Pupils: 7956 Schools: 120 Grant: £736,322
Key Stage: 3 Duration: 4 year(s) 9 month(s) Type of Trial: Efficacy Trial
Completed September 2022

Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is an approach to teaching mathematics which builds on students’ informal sense-making in response to imaginable and meaningful contexts. It focuses on progressive formalisation of mathematical models, supported by interactive teaching techniques in a whole class context.

The programme is intended to be delivered by trained teachers in the classroom, supported by eight days of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and ten modules of curriculum materials covering Number, Proportional Reasoning, Data, Algebra and Geometry for Y7 and Y8, each designed to provide a minimum of two weeks teaching materials.

There have been several previous evaluations of the Realistic Mathematics Education approach that use different textbooks and materials. These evaluations suggested that RME had positive impacts on student engagement, understanding and approaches to problem solving. However, these studies were often small and used matched designs.

RME was evaluated through a two-arm, three level efficacy trial with pupils clustered into classes and classes clustered into schools. The study aimed to assess the impact of the RME approach on mathematics attainment, using the GL Progress Test in Mathematics (PTM13).

This trial was disrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected attendance on training and delivery, as well as outcome testing, meaning that findings need to be interpreted with caution.

Pupils in RME schools (including those eligible for FSM) made, on average, no additional progress compared to those in the control group equivalent across any of the six PTM13 subscales. This is our best estimate of impact, which however has a very low security rating.

Considering the very low security rating, this trial may be replicated in the future.

Outcome/​Group
ImpactThe size of the difference between pupils in this trial and other pupils
SecurityHow confident are we in this result?
GL PTM13 (ITT)
0
Months' progress
(Effect size 0.04)
GL PTM13 (FSM ITT)
0
Months' progress
(Effect size 0.03)