GCSE mathematics in further education: challenging beliefs and practices

This paper describes the outcomes of a two‐year study on the beliefs and practices adopted by four FE teachers in their attempt to teach one‐year GCSE retake classes and the subsequent effects on students' learning. In the second year of the study, an attempt was made to perturb these practices by introducing a substantial collection of classroom discussion resources. These focused on well‐known conceptual obstacles and were intended to provoke cognitive conflict and reflection. Modest, yet significant learning gains were observed with two of the classes, but not with the others. Reasons for this appear to be related to teachers' beliefs about learning.