Everything That Matters in Learning Mathematics

When a school’s math results are not as expected, the conversation quickly fills with culprits: the latest education law, screens, families, or teachers. This chapter attempts to bring order to that debate. Based on available research, it reviews the main factors that influence math learning, distinguishes which carry the most weight, and points out which ones a school, program, or educational project can actually act upon.

The chapter develops four main points:

• The impact of any intervention can be evaluated on at least three levels: on learning (does it improve students’ mathematical competence?), on retention and progression within the education system (do they continue studying or drop out?), and on their relationship with math (do they enjoy doing math? Do they feel capable of learning and using it?).
  
• Math learning depends on factors operating at different distances from the classroom. The article organizes the available evidence into five main areas: (1) education policy, (2) the neighborhood and peers, (3) the family and early childhood, (4) school leadership, and (5) the teacher. The factors furthest from the classroom, such as educational policies, can affect many students, but their influence usually arrives more indirectly and slowly. The closest ones, like the teacher effect, affect smaller groups, but their impact is much more direct and immediate.

• The school cannot act on all factors, but it has considerable room to improve its students’ learning. Among the tools most directly within its reach, one of the most powerful could be coaching and continuous professional development for teachers paired with high-quality instructional materials (HQIM).

• School learning is generated, above all, around what is known as the “Instructional Core”, that is, the daily interaction between teachers, students, and materials. Its elements work interdependently, almost like multiplication: intervening to improve just one of them usually produces limited results. Good materials are of little use if the teacher doesn’t know how to make the most of them; good teaching loses strength if the tasks don’t allow students to connect with what they already know, participate actively, and receive the support they need; and teacher training disconnected from what happens every day in the classroom is unlikely to transform practice and student learning.

The chapter concludes with five practical implications for schools and addresses some of the most common objections that may arise when facing this map of factors for the first time.