Equations and Inequalities
Making Mathematics Accessible to All
More than ever, students need to engage with mathematical concepts, think quantitatively
and analytically, and communicate using mathematics. All these skills are central
to a young person’s preparedness to tackle problems that arise at work and in life
beyond the classroom. But the reality is that many students are not familiar with
basic mathematics concepts and, at school, only practice routine tasks that do not
improve their ability to think quantitatively and solve real-life, complex problems.
How can we break this pattern? This report, based on results from PISA 2012, shows
that one way forward is to ensure that all students spend more “engaged” time learning
core mathematics concepts and solving challenging mathematics tasks. The opportunity
to learn mathematics content – the time students spend learning mathematics topics
and practising maths tasks at school – can accurately predict mathematics literacy.
Differences in students’ familiarity with mathematics concepts explain a substantial
share of performance disparities in PISA between socio-economically advantaged and
disadvantaged students. Widening access to mathematics content can raise average levels
of achievement and, at the same time, reduce inequalities in education and in society
at large.
Published on June 20, 2016Also available in: French, Korean
In series:PISAview more titles