Research project
Efficacy trial of the 5Rs approach to GCSE Maths resits
- Start date: 31 October 2021
- End date: 31 December 2024
- Funding: Education Endowment Foundation
- Value: £158k
- Partners and collaborators: University of York
- Primary investigator: Prof Louise Tracey
- Co-investigators: Dr Erin Dysart
- External co-investigators: Izzy Coleman, University of York
Funding regulations (2014/15) mean that full-time students aged 16–19 with a grade 3 or below in GCSE maths must continue studying GCSE maths as a “condition of funding” of their education. Maths resit challenges are two-fold, impacting on both students and colleges. Recent surveys by the Association of Colleges identified pressures caused by maths resits as one of greatest concerns for colleges (AoC, 2018b) and vacancies for maths teachers as the fourth most difficult to fill (AoC, 2022). In 2019, only 21.5% of those aged 17 taking GCSE maths achieved a grade 4 or above (Ofqual, 2019). While students may understand the importance of reaching a grade 4 or above in maths, students have reported feeling like a ‘failure’ for not achieving this level and of finding maths difficult to understand (Playfair, 2019). This has potential knock-on effects such as lower confidence in maths, lower motivation and less engagement in (and outside of) maths lessons.
The 5Rs approach aims to enhance the support that teachers give to 16–19 year-old students resitting GCSE Maths in order to improve their attainment. The study is a two-armed cluster randomised controlled with embedded implementation and process evaluation. The central aim of the trial is to evaluate the impact of 5Rs on GCSE maths attainment for students aged 16–19 who are resitting GCSE maths to try to achieve a grade 4 or above.
Project aims
The central aim of the trial is to evaluate the impact of 5Rs on GCSE maths attainment for students aged 16–19 who are resitting GCSE maths to try to achieve a grade 4 or above.
Impact
Expected impact on policy and practice (dependent on outcomes) i.e. if positive outcomes the programme can be expected to be rolled out more widely. Peer-reviewed report will be published on the EEF website and contribute to their evidence base as presented in their Teacher Toolkit.
Publications and outputs
Currently the published protocol and further details on the study are available on the EEF website.
c. April–May 2024 the Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) will also be published on the website.
The peer-reviewed report will be available on the website c. Nov/Dec 202.
Any additional publications are embargoed for six months after the report is published.