Another random day of browsing NSW Department of Education’s site and I found this piece of a gem on a topic that I am deeply interested in. This one is Why aren’t students studying higher level maths? the full article is 31 pages, so I tried to summerise what got said, if you have the time and intest I most certainly recommend a read.
What is happening with Math enrolment in NSW.
In New South Wales (NSW), overall enrolments in mathematics in the Higher School Certificate (HSC) have increased by seven per cent from 2001 to 2015. However, enrolments in the HSC Mathematics course, an intermediate mathematics course that includes calculus, decreased by 4,453 enrolments over this period (see Figure 1 below). This reflects a drop from 39 per cent of all mathematics enrolments in the HSC in 2001 to 29 per cent in 2015. At the same time, enrolments in the HSC General Mathematics course (does not include calculus; renamed Mathematics General 2 in 2014) have increased by nine per cent since 2001.
The main points of investigation
1. Has there been a scaling advantage for HSC General Mathematics over HSC Mathematics for the
years 2009 to 2013?
2. Of the student and school characteristics available, which student- and school-level characteristics are
related to student choice of HSC General Mathematics rather than HSC Mathematics?
3. Do students studying STEM subjects at university regret choosing HSC General Mathematics?
4. Does the perceived scaling advantage or subject workload have greater influence on choosing HSC
General Mathematics over HSC Mathematics?
Foundings for the issues raised above
- Results showed a substantial and statistically significant scaling advantage for HSC General Mathematics over HSC Mathematics from 2009 through 201316.
- Once student- and school-level characteristics were adjusted for, results showed that certain types of schools were more likely than others to have students who chose HSC General Mathematics and potentially benefitted from the scaling advantage. Students from Technical and Further Education (TAFE)
colleges had the highest odds of taking HSC General Mathematics, while students from government boys’ schools had the lowest odds. - Despite the scaling advantage associated with choosing HSC General Mathematics, a significant proportion of students who went on to study tertiary STEM subjects at university and had studied HSC General Mathematics reported wanting, in hindsight, to have selected more challenging mathematics.
- It appears that HSC General Mathematics students were more influenced by perceptions of a lower workload rather than a scaling advantage.
Conclusion
In 2013 the average scaling advantage for taking HSC General Mathematics was 5.3 scaled marks, which is approximately equal to 1.3 ATAR points. Therefore, this scaling advantage is likely to be partially driving the declining enrolments in HSC Mathematics.
These findings suggest that addressing the scaling advantage may help to ensure that students choose mathematics subjects that more adequately prepare
them for their future studies and careers. Despite the presence of a scaling advantage for HSC General Mathematics, analysis of the Expectations
and Destinations Survey found that many students seemed to be more driven by the perceived workload advantages rather than a belief in a scaling advantage.
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