Transmaths: Policies - Into College

Current policy and practice discourses are in danger of leaving out the voices of young people who see transition and choice making as part of growing-up, being more independent and becoming adults. Our research suggests that students need challenge as well as support to optimise progress in transition and thus educational policies should not neglect this important aspect.

Our research also suggests that ‘resilience’ is socially and culturally dependent and not a result of a ‘personality factor’. For that reason, policies that seek to underpin students’ social and cultural needs should be encouraged.

Finally, we believe that it is important to continue to speak to policy about the negative aspects of ‘teaching to the test’, and how this practice is unhelpful in developing conceptual understanding and self-regulating learning skills which are essential during transition to AS-level mathematics.