Professional Documents
Culture Documents
4, 2003 199
Engineering mathematicsdare to
hope?
Nigel Steele
Accepted August 2003
Abstract
Some of the challenges encountered in the delivery of engineering mathe-
matics courses have their origins in the changing and often non-uniform
degree of mathematical preparedness of the recipients. In some cases,
these challenges arise in a positive way, as a result of a deliberate policy
of wider access to engineering courses. However, in others, they come
about following problems encountered with mathematics provision in
pre-university study, and as such are re£ecting a much larger problem,
one which has implications way beyond the boundaries of engineering
mathematics. Mathematics at school level is plagued with enormous
di⁄culties and uncertainties including a shortage of well-quali¢ed tea-
chers, and an ongoing debate on curriculum and assessment. A plethora
of ‘‘interesting’’ sounding degree titles and a high demand for graduates
in mathematics to enter lucrative careers, militates against the recruit-
ment of highly-quali¢ed teachers. Nevertheless, there are actions and
initiatives aimed at supporting and strengthening school-level mathe-
matics in various ways and this paper will describe and comment on
some of them. Moreover, it aims to show that University mathematics
departments/groups could play an important role in taking some of these
proposals forward.
1. Introduction
The aim of this paper is to consider some aspects of mathematics teaching in
schools and further education (FE) as they impinge upon Engineering Mathematics
in higher education (HE), and to report on some developments. We will present some
recent data reflecting recruitment/retention difficulties as well as qualification short-
falls. The establishment of the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education
(ACME) is an important development, and we discuss its first report on continuing
professional development for teachers of mathematics, which is already making an
impact.
The Government Inquiry into post-14 mathematics in the UK is a major oppor-
tunity for interested parties in influence developments in mathematics, and some
aspects of the IMA’s evidence to that Inquiry are described.
Teaching Mathematics and its Applications 22(2) The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications 2003;
all rights reserved
200 TEACHING MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS Volume 22, No. 4, 2003
Year 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Total 662 684 699 731 734 733 726 739 778 794 784 772 749 701
Maths 85 80 75 72 66 65 62 67 69 71 70 67 66 54
% 12.8 11.7 10.7 9.8 9.0 8.9 8.5 9.1 8.9 8.9 8.9 8.7 8.8 7.7
TEACHING MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS Volume 22, No. 4, 2003 201
3. Mathematics teachers
The role of the teacher at all levels is critical; uninformed comment can cause both
offence and demotivation amongst practising teachers. Nevertheless, there is evidence
of teacher shortage and a lack of qualification. Informative data has been gathered in
the OU/Kings/NAMA survey (1), involving 22 LEAs and with responses from 1571
maths teachers in 228 secondary schools.
There are various horror stories, including the fact that 24% of those who
responded had what were categorised as weak or no maths qualifications (of those
teaching A-level, 34 had just maths A level and three just GCSE in mathematics).
There is evidence of the increasing use of part-time teachers and use of teachers
qualified in another subject and based in another department. Eight percent of those
responding were about to retire. Overall, the conclusion is that there is a shortfall of
15% in the numbers of serving teachers qualified to teach maths, and this is broadly in
line with other studies carried out at about the same time. The data masked real
shortages supported by evidence from recruitment ‘‘drives’’ in the 2002 calendar year
by the individual schools. The report cited the following:
. One school had advertised for six maths teachers.
. 25% of responding schools have advertised for more than three maths teachers in
the period.
. In one case, recruitment was necessary to replace the entire maths department who
had left (through retirement, move to the independent sector and a career change to
become a tax inspector).
The result of these and other recruitment efforts was summarised as:
. for 22.4% of the maths posts advertised—no appointment,
. for 10.6% of the maths posts advertised—no choice of candidate for appointment,
and an ‘‘unsatisfactory’’ appointment made,
. for 10.9% of the maths post advertised—the candidate appointed needed addi-
tional ‘‘support’’
. for 37.1% of the maths posts advertised—the appointments made were considered
to be good!
The tentative conclusion drawn from this survey was that the situation on the
ground was ‘‘patchy’’, but certainly raised concern. Teachers themselves had ex-
pressed the need for continuing professional development (CPD) and the survey
results supported their views.
There is some positive news. There were more recruits to maths initial teacher
training (ITT) again in 2002, and more graduates (more than 350) had applied for
maths PGCE courses in autumn 2002 than ever before. The number of unfilled
vacancies in mathematics fell slightly in 2002. Nevertheless there were still more than
400 vacancies for 2002 [420 (2001), 240 (2000), 150 (1999), 140 (1998)]. These numbers
do, of course, mask the ‘‘hidden’’ vacancies, that is, maths posts filled by non-maths
trained teachers, and it has to be of concern that a significant number (30%) of maths
teachers are over 50.
The situation in secondary education may not be satisfactory and the Roberts
Report, ‘‘SET for Success’’ (2) identifies the need for action to increase the level of
202 TEACHING MATHEMATICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS Volume 22, No. 4, 2003
subject expertise in mathematics (and physical science) in both ITT and CPD
programmes for primary teachers.
Whilst many factors have no doubt contributed to the figures seen in Table 1, it
would seem that an important, but not the only, step has to be an examination of the
needs for CPD for the existing teaching force.
The then Secretary of State for education announced in early 2002 the
establishment of an inquiry into post-14 mathematics in the UK. After some
delay, the Chair of the Inquiry, Professor Adrian Smith, Principal of Queen Mary
College, was appointed. Very soon, the broad aim of the inquiry was announced and
requests were sent out to various bodies, seeking their views. The invitation to
contribute was originally in the form of various questions for consideration. How-
ever, the Institute chose to respond to the request by considering the aim of the
Inquiry and identifying some of the factors which currently militate against this aim
being achieved. We also suggested some directions which should be followed to meet
the aim more closely.
As a guiding principle, the Institute believes that it must be a major government
priority to ensure that a stimulating, high-quality education in mathematics is
available for all pupils and students at both the compulsory and all later stages in
their education.
‘‘SET for Success’’, the report of Sir Gareth Robert’s review (2) is clear on the need
for more graduates in mathematics and the physical sciences to meet the requirements
of the UK economy. The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications believes that
meeting this ‘‘top end’’ requirement, vital for major areas of employment and
research, can only be achieved through actions aimed at all stages of the education
process, and such actions cannot be restricted to high achievers in the subject alone.
The sections below contain a selection of what the Institute considered to be
important issues/points for consideration by the Inquiry.
so they may proceed to more advanced scientific and technical subjects.’’ This
remark may be taken as applying equally to the UK.
5.1.2. Insufficient and declining numbers engaging with mathematics at all levels of
education.
5.1.3. Deliberate understating of the mathematical demands in different areas of
study in order to accommodate.
5.1.4. Avoidance of development of mathematical understanding in technology and
other courses, for example using the device known as ‘‘embedding’’, serving to
undermine awareness of the central importance of the subject.
and the Advanced Extension Award (AEA) concept as well as through the use
of Free-Standing Maths Qualifications (FSMQ)’s bearing UCAS points.
5.3.11. In HE there are two distinct aspects to be considered:
(a) Courses leading to degrees in mathematics, including mathematical
sciences, financial mathematics etc.
(b) Support for courses leading to degrees in engineering, science, economics,
business, social science and so on (‘‘Service’’ teaching).
5.3.12. In 5.3.11a, the majority of students will hold ‘‘top end’’ qualifications and
their programmes will come under the benchmarking statement for MSOR.
This allows for welcome diversity, having a definite core and possibly also a
focus on certain application areas, reflecting employer needs.
5.3.13. Although students on such courses may have high qualifications in mathe-
matics, it is not uncommon for some additional support in mathematics to be
needed in the early stages. Nevertheless, with this support and the provision of
the 4-year MMath programme in several universities, the courses are
successful and new graduates from these courses often attract high starting
salaries.
5.3.14. For ‘‘Service’’ courses, the position is complex, not least because the level of
mathematical preparedness at intake may be diverse. ‘‘Service’’ teaching is an
important part of HE activity and is a key part o the contribution of
mathematics to the UK economy. This point is further discussed in Section
5.4.
Support centres, often using IT-based material for part of their work, have an
important role to play in these courses in HE.
5.3.15. The Government has announced that further HE expansion will be through
the use of Foundation degrees. The Institute considers it vital that the
educational content of these degrees is appropriate in terms of basic
principles, and that due attention is paid in their design to the role of
mathematics as the language of technology.
Again, the use of support centres will be critical.
5.3.16. It will continue to be the job of HE to adjust to change as far as levels of
achievement in mathematics amongst its entrants are concerned.
References
1. ‘‘Teachers of Mathematics: their qualifications, training and recruitment’’. A report of a
survey of secondary mathematics departments carried out in the acedemic year 2001–2002.
Johnston-Wilder, S., Allen, B., Thumpston, G., Cooke, H., Brown, M. and Burton, L.
Open University, National Association of Mathematics Advisers, King’s College London,
February 2003.
2. ‘‘SET for Success’’. The supply of people with science, technology, engineering and
mathematics skills. The report of Sir Gareth Robert’s Review. HM Treasury, April 2002.
3. ‘‘Tackling the Mathematics Problem’’. LMS/IMA/RSS, October 1995.
4. ‘‘Continuing Professional Development for teachers of mathematics’’. ACME PR/01,
Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education, December 2002.
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Mathematics Council. Hoyles, C., Wolf, A., Molyneux-Hodgson, S. and Kent, P. Science,
Technology and Mathematics Council, June 2002.
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Department of Education, February 2003.
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Skills, November 2002.
8. James, D. J. G. (2002) Mathematics in Schools: implications for undergraduate courses in
engineering and other numerate disciplines. Mathematics Today, 38, 140–146.
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10. ‘‘Education and training. A business blueprint for reform’’. IOD Policy paper. Lea R.
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