The Observatory publishes a new themed report on key stage 3 teachers of mathematics
Stephen Lee, Senior Research Fellow
The first themed report from the Observatory’s secondary longitudinal cohort has now been published on the topic of key stage 3 teachers of mathematics.
The short report explores a range of key issues in five sections:
- Who is teaching maths in Key Stage 3?
- Teacher motivation and enjoyment
- Teacher agency and departmental culture
- Teacher workload
- Teacher professional development
Teacher workforce key findings
For this study, maths teachers in the 150 secondary schools in England were invited to complete a detailed workforce survey in November 2024. The report presents analysis of responses from 1030 teachers in these schools. (The cohort study school sampling technical report details how these schools were sampled.)
The report has five main findings:
- KS3 teachers of mathematics are less experienced and less well-qualified in mathematics than those who only teach KS4/KS5.
- KS3 maths teachers overwhelmingly enjoy teaching maths and the majority believe that they have sufficient autonomy as teachers.
- Most KS3 maths teachers report that they do have sufficient time for teaching the maths curriculum but not for administrative tasks, and almost half of them say they do not have enough time for planning.
- The most common motivations for becoming maths teachers are to make a contribution to society, job security and the work schedule.
- The most pressing professional development need reported by KS3 maths teachers is on the use of digital technologies.
These key findings provide new understanding across a wide range of areas, with a focus on KS3. Many other insights were also established, particularly on the topic of recruitment and retention. For example, 72% of maths teachers agree or strongly agree with the statement that I will still be teaching in three years’ time. In addition, the proportion of KS3 teachers who agree or strongly agree that there are generally enough maths teachers in their department is substantially lower in the most disadvantaged schools (57%) than in the least disadvantaged schools (82%).
Read the report
Future work
The Observatory for Mathematical Education is undertaking an unprecedented programme of longitudinal research into maths education from reception to postgraduate level. The holistic, multi-scale and mixed-method programme aims to better understand the national system of mathematical education and support those trying to improve it. In future, the Observatory team will publish more detailed analysis of the KS3 teacher data, as well reports and outputs on other work currently in progress.
Author information
Stephen Lee is a Senior Research Fellow at the Observatory for Mathematical Education.
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