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This article presents the role of resource based learning in the undergraduate curriculum in engineering at Exeter, England. It was recognized from the start in 1965 that the new syllabus proposed for Engineering Science would present pedagogic difficulties. In the view of academic colleagues elsewhere, it was an attempt to cram the contents of traditional civil, electrical and mechanical syllabuses into a single three year course, and as such it was considered impossible to teach. The objective adopted for the new course was to educate students for a competent approach to problems involving innovation or relating to failure situations. The syllabus was divided into five subject-oriented lecture streams with conventional names: 'Electricity', 'Mathematics', 'Materials', 'Mechanics and Structures', and 'Thermofluids.' It is convenient to recognize two natural subdivisions in the resource material: programs that replace lectures and those that support laboratory classes. A program that re places a lecture must allow the student to go at his own pace making his own notes and it must be readily available.

The mathematical topics which are of use to geography students are outlined, as are the methods used for teaching mathematical techniques in geography courses at Leeds over the last few years. The concluding section relates practice to goals, and the problems of providing the student with a framework into which he can fit all the pieces of knowledge he has acquired. Possible future developments are reviewed briefly in the light of the development of new mathematical techniques on the one hand, and criticisms of the existing state of the art on the other. The subject matter of the paper is limited to mathematical education, and there is only indirect and brief concern with statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishes whether mathematics is a barrier to higher education for adult returnees on Access courses, a project funded by the Higher Education Funding Council at the University of Exeter in England. Influence of social inequalities on participation in educational activities; Review of Access philosophy.

Assesses the performance of engineering students in first year mathematics at the University of Warwick in England. Comparison of students who have different mathematical qualifications on entry; Use of cluster analysis to determine attitude of students; Difficulties experienced by the engineering students in specific subject areas; Usefulness of various teaching methods to students.

Bernard Scott was born in London on 27 August 1915. At the time of his birth his name was Schultz. He was the only son of a Jewish family of fur and skin merchants who lived in North London; he had two sisters.Bernard attended the City of London School from 1925 to 1934. From school records it appears that he evinced an early taste for argument and debate. There is also testimony of his enthusiasm for sport, especially rugby. His talents for mathematics and for chess became evident at an early stage. While mathematics became his profession, it was the game of chess that aroused in him an abiding passion and made him a first-class player throughout his life.Bernard won an Open Scholarship in Mathematics to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He graduated with First Class Honours and a Distinction in Part III of the Mathematical Tripos in 1937. While pursuing his mathematical studies with evident success, he continued to cultivate his talent as a chess player. B. H. Neumann, who was a research student at Cambridge at that time, relates that he and Bernard Schultz (as he then was) went to London to take part in a weekend tournament and returned with all the prize money between them (about £7). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision analytic modelling, undertaken for the purpose of economic evaluation of health technologies, involves the application of mathematical techniques to synthesize available information about healthcare processes and their implications. These models embrace a variety of techniques, including decision-tree modeling. The University of Sheffield in Sheffield, England organized the “Consensus Conference on Guidelines on Economic Modelling in Health Technology Assessment,” from April 22-23, 1999. The purpose of the conference was to bring the builders and users of models with the aim of identifying the intrinsic properties of a good decision analytic model. A designated consensus panel convened in closed session to produce a first draft of a consensus statement based on discussions at the conference. A good decision analytic model for the economic evaluation of health technologies is one that is tailored to the purposes for which it is to be used, is useful for informing the decisions at which it is aimed and is readily communicated. A good decision analytic model is therefore characterised by transparency, internal consistency, reproducibility, interpretability, exploration of uncertainty among other characteristics.

Analyzes the responses of children to realistic mathematics problems in England. Details of the problems; Ability of the students to offer reasons in support of their answer; Absence of difference between girls and boys.

This study analyses the pedagogical ideas underpinning teachers' accounts of the successful use of computer-based tools and resources to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. These accounts were elicited through group interviews with the mathematics departments in seven English secondary schools, conducted in the first half of 2000. The central themes are organised to form a pedagogical model, capable of informing use of such technologies in classroom teaching, and of generating theoretical conjectures for future research. The thematic components of the model are summarised and related to prior research into computer use in mainstream schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a retrospective study of 'tracked' grouping in a mathematics department in a co-educational comprehensive school in Greater London. Tracking consisted here of just two tracks, a 'fast track' for the top 25-30% of a cohort, and a 'mixed track' for the remainder. The article outlines the reasons for introducing tracking and explores its effects through interviews with teachers and data on the progress of students from age 14 to age 16. The teachers reported that tracking impacted differently on different students, and this is borne out by the quantitative data. It was not possible to provide for 'setting' across all the mathematics classrooms in the focal cohort, and therefore one mixed-ability class was created. The use of analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models shows that fast-track students were not significantly advantaged by their placement in these tracks, but the progress of students in the mixed-ability group showed a significant interaction between progress and prior attainment, with placement in the mixed-ability group conferring a significant advantage on lower attaining students, while the disadvantage to higher attaining students was much smaller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study exploring young people's perceptions of the mathematics involved in five everyday activities. It is based on individual interviews with pupils in Years 7 and 10 in four English secondary schools. Results suggest that young people are more aware of the mathematics embedded in everyday activities than previously thought. There was no evidence to support existing theories that young people have particular difficulties identifying mathematics within practical activities or those traditionally performed by women. However, participants did seem to restrict the label mathematics to activities involving a problem with a single or limited solution, and to activities which require a formal rather than experimental or intuitive approach. Some participants also seemed to relate their discussion of mathematics only to the aspect of each activity which takes most time and attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) criteria from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders were used to assess a large sample of children at the end of their first year at school in England. These data were explored using Rasch measurement and the measures for the items together with their frequencies are reported. The data were further analysed in three ways: a) The results were compared with a previous similar analysis of college students. b) A principal components analysis of the item residuals from the Rasch analysis was conducted. c) The measures were linked to reading and mathematics attainment assessed at three different time points. The exploration supported previous work and theoretical positions, and in doing so raised issues about the appropriateness of the use of the criteria across all ages. It also suggested that one of the currently recognised ADHD sub-types could be further sub-divided into verbal and physical hyperactivity. The links to academic achievement raised questions about the integrity of the currently recognised ADHD sub-types and the paper calls for further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (2002a) reports that one of the most common examples of professional misconduct relates to the failure to administer medicines safely. In educating child-branch nurses, we have a duty to enhance students' calculation skills so that they are safe and can provide the best possible care to children. This paper presents a framework for numeracy within a child-branch curriculum, describing a practical approach to developing students' skills in the mathematical calculations they are likely to encounter in clinical practice. A pass mark of 70 per cent in relevant numeracy tests is considered too low for child branch students. Early identification of mathematical ability and provision of relevant tutorial support will ensure that the majority of students achieve the required standard.

MathsAid was established in 2001 as a university‐wide resource for students enrolled on programmes at Kingston University that contain a mathematics or statistics component. Its broad aims are to provide a set of non‐threatening remedial and motivational opportunities in maths and statistics through one‐to‐one tutorial support, peer‐assisted learning (PAL) and ICT products managed through the BlackBoard learning management system. An evaluation of the MathsAid program has found it to aid some students in both their short‐ and long‐term learning objectives but has raised questions of whether it could be adjusted to reach more of the most vulnerable students. This article outlines the MathsAid programme and the evaluation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Numeracy Strategy was introduced in England in 1998 to reform mathematics teaching in all primary schools. The strategy has been widely implemented and this paper investigates some of the changes that are evident after the first five years. Reporting a comparison between studies in 1998 and 2003 of pupils’ calculating strategies for division, this study shows a small improvement overall but lack of the uniformity that may be expected from a national Strategy. Structured written recording, progressively developed from more intuitive understanding, was not evident in much of the pupils’ work. In some schools there was success with the new ‘chunking’ written method, identified in the Framework as ‘informal’, while in less successful schools, pupils continued to use various informal and inefficient strategies. While in 1998 success of boys and girls was not significantly different, in 2003 the boys were more successful. The boys made more use of informal working and mental strategies, while the girls relied on more structured written methods and in the schools where girls did better they used mostly the chunking algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there such a thing as Irish mathematics, as opposed to mathematics which happens to have been done in Ireland or by thoseborn in Ireland? Certainly, Ireland in the nineteenth century was in one of its mathematically richest phases, with such men as William Rowan Hamilton, James MacCullagh, George Salmon, and George Fitzgerald to inspire generations of students and researchers, as well as exporting to England such talented mathematicians as Kelvin, Stokes and Larmor. This paper seeks to explore, through examining the mathematics taught and researched, whether the category of ‘Irish mathematics’ is one that makes sense for this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a summary of a paper on a class of Riemann-Hilbert problems with almost periodic polynomial coefficients presented by speaker Cristina Camara at the Thirty-First Summer Symposium in Real Analysis held at the University of Oxford, England from August 13 to 15, 2007. The presentation focuses on the interaction between some simple classical results from real analysis and problems arising in other areas of mathematics. Also studied is the existence and actual determination of almost-periodic solutions of a class of such problems.

The article focuses on mathematics and its three semiotic systems in London, England. The three semiotic systems are verbal language, algebraic notations and visual forms. The systematic functional linguistics (SFL) have been developed to further understand visual forms. It has been extended to include non-verbal modes. It will aid to investigate what visual representations mean in mathematical texts. Several linguistic approaches have been made to help students analyze geometrical problems through diagrams and shapes. These are Morgan's linguistic approach, Kress and van Leeuwen mutimodality approach and Sfrad's commognition approach. The framework is currently on a pilot stage in the city for analysis.

This article offers an overview of the life and work of Leonhard Euler (1707-83). During 2007 Euler's tercentenary was celebrated by mathematicians around the world. The Open University Centre for the History of the Mathematical Sciences and the BSHM marked the occasion with a meeting in Oxford in June 2007 on Euler's mathematical legacy. Three of the lectures from that meeting have been reproduced in this issue of the Bulletin, beginning here with the opening talk from Jeremy Gray. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the contribution of Leone Burton to the field of mathematics in Great Britain and worldwide. She was appointed Professor of Science and Mathematics Education at the University of Birmingham in England where she managed a legion of doctoral students. She has collaborated with Ann Floyd, Nick James and John Mason of the Open University in developing a mathematics course for teachers named Developing Mathematical Thinking. Burton served as convenor for the International Organization of Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME).

In this paper, based on a project funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council considering how people position themselves in relation to popular representations of mathematics and mathematicians, we explore constructions of mathematicians in popular culture and the ways learners make meanings from these. Drawing on an analysis of popular cultural texts, we argue that popular discourses overwhelmingly construct mathematicians as white, heterosexual, middle-class men, yet also construct them as 'other' through systems of binary oppositions between those doing and those not doing mathematics. Turning to the analysis of a corpus of 27 focus groups with school and university students in England and Wales, we explore how such images are deployed by learners. We argue that while learners' views of mathematicians parallel in key ways popular discourses, they are not passively absorbing these as they are simultaneously aware of the cliched nature of popular cultural images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea for this collection of memories of E. H. Thompson began as a suggestion to potential contributors for anything from “a couple of sentences to a couple of paragraphs”. Both their willingness to write and the length of some contributions show how influential Thompson has been in the lives of so many of his colleagues and students. Contributors include two past-presidents of the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing and six past-presidents of the Photogrammetric Society. Three longer essays are published as separate contributions to this feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2003) removed standard entry criteria for nursing programmes and asked Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to consider the literacy and numeracy skills of prospective students. This triggered admissions staff within a Faculty of Health to consider ways of attracting people with the right skills but not the qualifications to prove it. It is important to encourage a wide range of people into nursing to meet the demands of strategic plans and policy, as well as to ensure the nursing profession reflects the diverse client groups it serves. Removing standard entry criteria and the widening participation agenda gave an ideal opportunity to try something new. A course entitled 'Portfolio of Evidence for Entry to Level 1 Study' was developed within the Faculty of Health at Staffordshire University to enable potential nursing students without standard entry qualifications to demonstrate their skills in numeracy and literacy. This paper reports on the background to this course and its success for three student cohorts (over an 18 month period) who have completed their first year of pre-registration nursing. The methodology employed is descriptive, qualitative analysis, comparing portfolio and standard entry students' assignment results., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Thames Water ring main extension is a 4·5 km long tunnel from Stoke Newington, in the London borough of Hackney, to New River Head in Finsbury, in the London borough of Islington. The 2·85 m i.d. tunnel was excavated by an earth pressure balance tunnel-boring machine (TBM) at depths between 40 and 60 m below the surface. Surface settlements along the route were measured by precise levelling, and were found to be small. It was therefore even more important to measure these settlements as accurately as possible, in order to provide informed estimates of subsurface movements induced in third-party underground structures much closer to the tunnel horizon. Because of the relatively large magnitude of the background movements measured, when compared with the small tunnel-induced settlements, it was necessary to adopt a rigorous statistical method to fit a Gaussian curve to the data. This exploited the analogy of the 'error function' to define the Gaussian curve parameters and . In all, 13 tunnels were underpassed successfully by the TBM, all within the 'conservative expected value' predictions, and without incident. The predictions and structural monitoring schemes undertaken for the High Speed 1 tunnels near Corsica Street and the Northern line tunnels near Angel station are described in the paper. It was found that the surface and subsurface trough width parameter did not vary with depth as predicted: therefore a new relationship is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, there has been a great deal of work directed at, first, understanding students' difficulties in algebra and, second, examining ways of tackling these difficulties. There is a vast research literature detailing successful ways of teaching algebra in experimental and laboratory settings. Yet, there is no clear evidence that this work has had a significant effect in terms of improving either attainment or engagement in algebra in ordinary, or non-experimental, classroom settings. Indeed, in England, current attainment in algebra appears to be no better than that of 30 years ago. In this paper, we analyse the algebra topics from two textbooks currently in widespread use in England, focusing on Grade 7 (ages 12-13). We examine the extent to which these textbooks draw on the research literature to support the teaching of algebra. Finally, we discuss the implications of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking lower-secondary schooling within the English educational system as an example, this paper illustrates the contribution of two bodies of international scholarship to the scoping of research-based pedagogical development aimed at improving student attitude and achievement in science and mathematics. After sketching the English context of systemic reform, the paper uses findings from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) series to illuminate changes in performance, analysed within a framework of cross-system and between-subject comparison. Contrary to the optimistic picture from national assessment, the TIMSS findings suggest that systemic reform has produced fundamental gains only in student achievement in mathematics, and serious declines in student attitude towards both mathematics and science. Prompted by more favourable patterns elsewhere, the paper then triangulates the findings of recent meta-analytic research syntheses to identify promising lines of pedagogical development. Despite important differences in the conceptual frameworks and analytic methods of these syntheses, reasonably robust conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of four teaching components: domain-specific inquiry for student achievement in both subjects, student attitude in science, and learning processes in mathematics; cooperative group work for learning and attitude in science; contextual orientation for achievement in science; and active teaching for achievement in mathematics. Equally, discrepancies between findings or insufficiencies of evidence highlight a number of impacts particularly deserving deeper analysis or further investigation: cooperative group work on achievement outcomes, differing forms of learning assessment on both attitude and achievement outcomes, contextual orientation on outcomes in mathematics, and active teaching on outcomes in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential impact of a national pilot initiative in England aimed at increasing and widening participation in advanced mathematical study through the creation of a new qualification for 16- to 18-year-olds. This proposed qualification pathway- Use of Mathematics-sits in parallel with long-established, traditional advanced level qualifications, what we call 'traditional Mathematics' herein. Traditional Mathematics is typically required for entry to mathematically demanding undergraduate programmes. The structure, pedagogy and assessment of Use of Mathematics is designed to better prepare students in the application of mathematics, and its development has surfaced some of the tensions between academic/pure and vocational/applied mathematics. Here, we explore what Use of Mathematics offers, but we also consider some of the objections to its introduction in order to explore aspects of the knowledge politics of mathematics education. Our evaluation of this curriculum innovation raises important issues for the mathematics education community as countries seek to increase the numbers of people that are well prepared to apply mathematics in science and technology-based higher education courses and work places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a time when many countries wish to improve their capacity in terms of scientifically and technologically educated young people, mathematics has an increasingly important role to play in support of this agenda. International studies tend to lead to headlines about performance and achievement, but widening participation in mathematics requires more than this. Fundamentally, we need students to develop positive dispositions towards mathematics and continued study of the subject. The articles brought together in this special issue explore underlying issues reporting on the work of a research project that focused on two different programmes of mathematical study in the first year of post-compulsory study in England. The wide-ranging work that is reported provides timely insights, through both quantitative and qualitative lenses, as students in transition negotiate their identities as young people in general, and in relation to mathematics in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the relationship between policy and practice in the early childhood mathematics curriculum for reception-class (RC) children of five years in England. It explores what the policy requires RC teachers to do in terms of curriculum implementation; what RC teachers’ views and understanding of the early childhood mathematics curriculum are; how RC teachers implement early years mathematics policy; and how RC children respond. A case study design included interviews with elite participants who influenced the policy-making process, survey of RC teachers and a detailed investigation of RC classes on three school sites. As elite interviews underlined, international comparison studies have had an important influence on early childhood mathematics policies by creating top-down pressure for standards. Elites and practitioners drew attention to a tension between a play-based pedagogy and a standards agenda. Tensions in policy text were reflected in mixed and ambivalent views and reported practices by elites and practitioners. RC teachers did not merely receive and implement policy expectations but brought their own values and understandings to practice. The study reveals interplay between local and global influences in a context of changing views of early childhood, early learning and early years pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey highlighted how attitudes to mathematics had declined sharply for students in many of the high attaining countries in the survey, England being no exception. There is a notable drop in positive attitudes to mathematics between 9 and 14, as well as a remarkable decline for 14 year olds over time. This paper explores survey data collected from over 3000 11-year-olds in 16 schools during 2008 with the goal of exploring possible factors that might be contributing to this attitudinal decline. The association between student-centred teaching and enjoyment of learning mathematics is reported as part of a multi-scale analysis that shows the extent to which student experiences differ between schools and between classes within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of the results of the national tests in English, mathematics and science taken by 11-year olds in England has been a matter of much debate since their introduction in 1994, with estimates of the proportion of students incorrectly classified varying from 10 to 30%. Using live data from the 2009 and 2010 administration of the national tests, this paper uses a number of models, drawing on both classical and modern test theories, to explore the relationship between test reliability, and the extent of misclassification when a student’s test score is reported in terms of one of a small number of discrete levels of achievement. The results indicate that across the two cohorts (2009 and 2010) and six models, the averages of classification accuracy of the tests were about 85%, 90% and 87% in English, mathematics and science, respectively. Moreover, the different models yielded very similar results; the standard deviations of the values of classification accuracy generated were 1.9% for English, 1.0% for mathematics and 1.3% for science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are respected cross-national studies of pupil achievement. They have been specifically designed to study how countries’ educational systems are performing against one another, and how this is changing over time. These are, however, politically sensitive issues, where different surveys can produce markedly different results. This is shown via a case study for England, where apparent decline in PISA test performance has caused policymakers much concern. Results suggest that England's drop in the PISA ranking is not replicated in TIMSS, and that this contrast may be due to data limitations in both surveys. Consequently, I argue that the current coalition government should not base educational policies on the assumption that the performance of England's secondary school pupils has declined over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: South Asians in England have an increased risk of childhood cancer but incidence by their individual ethnicities using self-assigned ethnicity is unknown. Our objective was to compare the incidence of childhood cancer in British Indians and Whites in Leicester, which has virtually complete, self-assigned, ethnicity data and the largest population of Indians in England. Methods: We obtained data on all cancer registrations from 1996 to 2008 for Leicester with ethnicity obtained by linkage to the Hospital Episodes Statistics database. Age-standardised incidence rates were calculated for childhood cancers in Indians and Whites as well as rate ratios, adjusted for age. Results: There were 33 cancers registered among Indian children and 39 among White children. The incidence rate for Indians was greater compared to Whites for all cancers combined (RR 1.82 (95% CI 1.14 to 2.89); p = 0.01), with some evidence of increased risk of leukaemia (RR 2.20 (0.95 to 5.07); p = 0.07), lymphoma (RR 3.96 (0.99 to 15.84); p = 0.04) and central nervous system tumours (RR 2.70 (1.00 to 7.26); p = 0.05). Rates were also higher in British Indian children compared to children in India. Conclusions: British Indian children in Leicester had an increased risk of developing cancer compared to White children, largely due to a higher incidence of central nervous system and haematological malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) remains a major cause of mortality in the United Kingdom. Yet predictions of future CHD mortality are potentially problematic due to population ageing and increase in obesity and diabetes. Here we explore future projections of CHD mortality in England & Wales under two contrasting future trend assumptions. Methods: In scenario A, we used the conventional counterfactual scenario that the last-observed CHD mortality rates from 2011 would persist unchanged to 2030. The future number of deaths was calculated by applying those rates to the 2012–2030 population estimates. In scenario B, we assumed that the recent falling trend in CHD mortality rates would continue. Using Lee-Carter and Bayesian Age Period Cohort (BAPC) models, we projected the linear trends up to 2030. We validate our methods using past data to predict mortality from 2002–2011. Then, we computed the error between observed and projected values. Results: In scenario A, assuming that 2011 mortality rates stayed constant by 2030, the number of CHD deaths would increase 62% or approximately 39,600 additional deaths. In scenario B, assuming recent declines continued, the BAPC model (the model with lowest error) suggests the number of deaths will decrease by 56%, representing approximately 36,200 fewer deaths by 2030. Conclusions: The decline in CHD mortality has been reasonably continuous since 1979, and there is little reason to believe it will soon halt. The commonly used assumption that mortality will remain constant from 2011 therefore appears slightly dubious. By contrast, using the BAPC model and assuming continuing mortality falls offers a more plausible prediction of future trends. Thus, despite population ageing, the number of CHD deaths might halve again between 2011 and 2030. This has implications for how the potential benefits of future cardiovascular strategies might best be calculated and presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To investigate the relationship between cannabis and tobacco use by age 15 and subsequent educational outcomes. Design Birth cohort study. Setting England. Participants The sample was drawn from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children; a core sample of 1155 individuals had complete information on all the variables. Measurements The main exposures were cannabis and tobacco use at age 15 assessed in clinic by computer-assisted questionnaire and serum cotinine. The main outcomes were performance in standardized assessments at 16 [Key Stage 4, General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)] in English and mathematics (mean scores), completion of five or more assessments at grade C level or higher and leaving school having achieved no qualifications. Analyses were sequentially adjusted for multiple covariates using a hierarchical approach. Covariates considered were: maternal substance use (ever tobacco or cannabis use, alcohol use above recommended limits); life course socio-economic position (family occupational class, maternal education, family income); child sex; month and year of birth; child educational attainment prior to age 11 (Key Stage 2); child substance use (tobacco, alcohol and cannabis) prior to age 15 and child conduct disorder. Findings In fully adjusted models both cannabis and tobacco use at age 15 were associated with subsequent adverse educational outcomes. In general, the dose-response effect seen was consistent across all educational outcomes assessed. Weekly cannabis use was associated negatively with English GCSE results [grade point difference (GPD), -5.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -8.34, -3.53] and with mathematics GCSE results (GPD, -6.91, 95% CI = -9.92, -3.89). Daily tobacco smoking was associated negatively with English GCSE (GPD, -11.90, 95% CI = -13.47, -10.33) and with mathematics GCSE (GPD, -16.72, 95% CI = -18.57, -14.86). The greatest attenuation of these effects was seen on adjustment for other substance use and conduct disorder. Following adjustment, tobacco appeared to have a consistently stronger effect than cannabis. Conclusions Both cannabis and tobacco use in adolescence are associated strongly with subsequent adverse educational outcomes. Given the non-specific patterns of association seen and the attenuation of estimates on adjustment, it is possible that these effects arise through non-causal mechanisms, although a causal explanation cannot be discounted. © 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To compare the educational levels of clients with brain injury, acquired during working age who received neurorehabilitation between 2002 and 2013 with two governmental reports examining educational levels of attainment in the general public. Methods Results from national skills numeracy and literacy assessments undertaken by clients with acquired brain injury (ABI) on admission to the centre between 2002 and 2013 were compared with the results from two national reports examining educational attainment in people in further education with and without long term disabilities, as part of an ongoing review/audit of the service. Results ABI resulted in lower levels of literacy and numeracy compared to the general public; women with ABI performed more poorly on the numeracy assessment compared to the literacy assessment; and clients with ABI had a disproportionately reduced level of literacy, resulting in a more even pattern of attainment on the numeracy and literacy assessments whereas the general public scored more highly on the literacy assessment. Conclusion ABI adversely affects both literacy and numeracy skills. It is important that the effect of ABI on numeracy and literacy is considered during vocational counselling and rehabilitation as a person's premorbid education level may be an overestimation of their abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives To examine nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare students' self-efficacy for science, perceived relevance of bioscience to their studies and expectations for academic success and the changes that occur after completing first-year introductory bioscience subjects. Background Bioscience is a foundation subject that underpins nursing, midwifery and other allied health courses. Bioscience subjects continue to be source of anxiety for students in those courses. Raising students' self-efficacy and perceptions of the importance and utility of bioscience to practice may be a way of ameliorating students' expectations and confidence in this subject area. Design A prospective correlational survey design. Methods Students were surveyed in the first semester of first year and the commencement of the second year. Students were drawn from nursing, midwifery, public health and allied health courses. The surveys contained scales for self-efficacy for science, perceived relevance of bioscience to their course and personal expectations for success in their bioscience subject. Results Ninety-seven and 82 students completed survey 1 and 2 respectively. Twenty-six surveys could be matched. Self-efficacy increased from survey 1 to survey 2, but expectations for academic success and task value, a measure for relevance, were lower. This was statistically significant for the matched pair sample. Using a mean split, students with high self-efficacy valued science more and had higher expectations for success in their bioscience courses than those with low self-efficacy. Conclusion Academic success in bioscience, confidence undertaking science tasks and perceiving bioscience as relevant to their course are interwoven concepts that are important for nursing, midwifery and applied healthcare students and ultimately for their professional practice. Relevance to clinical practice Literature indicates practitioners may not feel confident in their bioscience knowledge. Assisting undergraduate students to develop confidence in and perceive the relevance of bioscience to their discipline may ultimately impact on clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to high stakes examinations, teachers may engage in instructional practices to encourage their students to prepare well for their exams, including the use of ‘fear appeals’. The current study examined whether academic buoyancy played a role in student appraisals of fear appeals as threatening or challenging. High school students (N = 770) preparing for high-stakes mathematics exams in England completed self-report measures of the frequency with which their teacher used fear appeals, how they appraised those fear appeals, and their academic buoyancy. In line with prediction, students appraised fear appeals as more threatening and challenging as the frequency of fear appeal use increased. When fear appeals were used more frequently, a challenge appraisal was more likely when academic buoyancy was higher. Although a threat appraisal was less likely when academic buoyancy was higher, the protective influence diminished when fear appeals were used more frequently. Educational implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking has been identified as the second greatest risk factor for global death and disability and has impacts on the oral cavity from aesthetic changes to fatal diseases such as oral cancer. The paper presents a secondary analysis of the National Adult Dental Health Survey (2009). The analysis used descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses and logistic regression models to report the self-reported oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers in England. Of the 9,657 participants, 21% reported they were currently smoking. When compared with smokers; non-smokers were more likely to report ‘good oral health’ (75% versus 57% respectively, p<0.05). Smokers were twice as likely to attend the dentist symptomatically (OR = 2.27, CI = 2.02–2.55) compared with non-smoker regardless the deprivation status. Smokers were more likely to attend symptomatically in the most deprived quintiles (OR = 1.99, CI = 1.57–2.52) and perceive they had poorer oral health (OR = 1.77, CI = 1.42–2.20). The present research is consistent with earlier sub-national research and should be considered when planning early diagnosis and management strategies for smoking-related conditions, considering the potential impact dental teams might have on smoking rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend toisolateorintegratemathematics from/with the vocational experience.Integratedapproaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is an account of the making of England and her Soldiers (1859) by Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale. The book is a literary account of the Crimean War, written by Martineau and based on Nightingale's statistical studies of mortality during the conflict. Nightingale was passionate about statistics and healthcare. Whilst working as a nurse in the Crimea, she witnessed thousands of soldiers die of infectious diseases that might have been prevented with proper sanitation. After the war, she launched a campaign to convince the British government to make permanent reforms to military healthcare, compiling a dataset on mortality in the Crimea. She worked with the government's Royal Commission investigating healthcare during the war, but also worked privately with Martineau to publicise her findings. Martineau and Nightingale grasped that the lay reader was more receptive to statistical information in a literary format than in dense statistical reports. As such, Nightingale's data was interwoven with Martineau's text. The pair illustrated their book with Nightingale's 'Rose Diagram', a statistical graphic which simply illustrated the rate of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large-scale multiple surveillance system for infectious disease outbreaks has been in operation in England and Wales since the early 1990s. Changes to the statistical algorithm at the heart of the system were proposed and the purpose of this paper is to compare two new algorithms with the original algorithm. Test data to evaluate performance are created from weekly counts of the number of cases of each of more than 2000 diseases over a twenty-year period. The time series of each disease is separated into one series giving the baseline (background) disease incidence and a second series giving disease outbreaks. One series is shifted forward by twelve months and the two are then recombined, giving a realistic series in which it is known where outbreaks have been added. The metrics used to evaluate performance include a scoring rule that appropriately balances sensitivity against specificity and is sensitive to variation in probabilities near 1. In the context of disease surveillance, a scoring rule can be adapted to reflect the size of outbreaks and this was done. Results indicate that the two new algorithms are comparable to each other and better than the algorithm they were designed to replace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We have assessed whether the linkage between routine primary and secondary care records provided an opportunity to develop an improved population based co-morbidity score with the combined information on co-morbidities from both health care settings. Methods: We extracted all people older than 20 years at the start of 2005 within the linkage between the Hospital Episodes Statistics, Clinical Practice Research Datalink, and Office for National Statistics death register in England. A random 50% sample was used to identify relevant diagnostic codes using a Bayesian hierarchy to share information between similar Read and ICD 10 code groupings. Internal validation of the score was performed in the remaining 50% and discrimination was assessed using Harrell’s C statistic. Comparisons were made over time, age, and consultation rate with the Charlson and Elixhauser indexes. Results: 657,264 people were followed up from the 1st January 2005. 98 groupings of codes were derived from the Bayesian hierarchy, and 37 had an adjusted weighting of greater than zero in the Cox proportional hazards model. 11 of these groupings had a different weighting dependent on whether they were coded from hospital or primary care. The C statistic reduced from 0.88 (95% confidence interval 0.88–0.88) in the first year of follow up, to 0.85 (0.85–0.85) including all 5 years. When we stratified the linked score by consultation rate the association with mortality remained consistent, but there was a significant interaction with age, with improved discrimination and fit in those under 50 years old (C = 0.85, 0.83–0.87) compared to the Charlson (C = 0.79, 0.77–0.82) or Elixhauser index (C = 0.81, 0.79–0.83). Conclusions: The use of linked population based primary and secondary care data developed a co-morbidity score that had improved discrimination, particularly in younger age groups, and had a greater effect when adjusting for co-morbidity than existing scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the issues surrounding numerical competence for potential pre-registration children’s nursing students, with examples of success and failure, at the University of Hertfordshire. With poor numerical ability causing concern in the UK, and the effect of low competence on patient safety when calculating drug dosages in healthcare, this article considers some of the literature surrounding numerical ability, confidence and anxiety, along with considering whether a ‘C’ grade at GCSE is a suitable marker for assessing numerical competence before starting a pre-registration nursing programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It has been suggested that greater maternal adiposity during pregnancy affects lifelong risk of offspring fatness via intrauterine mechanisms. Our aim was to use Mendelian randomisation (MR) to investigate the causal effect of intrauterine exposure to greater maternal body mass index (BMI) on offspring BMI and fat mass from childhood to early adulthood.Methods and Findings: We used maternal genetic variants as instrumental variables (IVs) to test the causal effect of maternal BMI in pregnancy on offspring fatness (BMI and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry [DXA] determined fat mass index [FMI]) in a MR approach. This was investigated, with repeat measurements, from ages 7 to 18 in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; n = 2,521 to 3,720 for different ages). We then sought to replicate findings with results for BMI at age 6 in Generation R (n = 2,337 for replication sample; n = 6,057 for total pooled sample). In confounder-adjusted multivariable regression in ALSPAC, a 1 standard deviation (SD, equivalent of 3.7 kg/m2) increase in maternal BMI was associated with a 0.25 SD (95% CI 0.21-0.29) increase in offspring BMI at age 7, with similar results at later ages and when FMI was used as the outcome. A weighted genetic risk score was generated from 32 genetic variants robustly associated with BMI (minimum F-statistic = 45 in ALSPAC). The MR results using this genetic risk score as an IV in ALSPAC were close to the null at all ages (e.g., 0.04 SD (95% CI -0.21-0.30) at age 7 and 0.03 SD (95% CI -0.26-0.32) at age 18 per SD increase in maternal BMI), which was similar when a 97 variant generic risk score was used in ALSPAC. When findings from age 7 in ALSPAC were meta-analysed with those from age 6 in Generation R, the pooled confounder-adjusted multivariable regression association was 0.22 SD (95% CI 0.19-0.25) per SD increase in maternal BMI and the pooled MR effect (pooling the 97 variant score results from ALSPAC with the 32 variant score results from Generation R) was 0.05 SD (95%CI -0.11-0.21) per SD increase in maternal BMI (p-value for difference between the two results = 0.05). A number of sensitivity analyses exploring violation of the MR results supported our main findings. However, power was limited for some of the sensitivity tests and further studies with relevant data on maternal, offspring, and paternal genotype are required to obtain more precise (and unbiased) causal estimates.Conclusions: Our findings provide little evidence to support a strong causal intrauterine effect of incrementally greater maternal BMI resulting in greater offspring adiposity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a re-interpretation of the development of practical mathematics in Elizabethan England, placing artisanal know-how and the materials of the discipline at the heart of analysis, and bringing attention to Tudor economic policy by way of historical context. A major new source for the early instrument trade is presented: a manuscript volume of Chancery Court documents c.1565-c.1603, containing details of a patent granting a monopoly on making and selling mathematical instruments, circa 1575, to an unnamed individual, identified here as the instrument maker Humphrey Cole. Drawing on economic and legal history, the paper argues that practical mathematics needs to be understood as one 'project' among many, at a time when monopoly patents were used to advance industry, lower unemployment, secure the realm and reward invention. Drawing on the history and sociology of technology, it argues that the management and control of materials - mathematical instruments themselves, and the local socio-legal context within which they could be made - needs to be understood as prior to and separate from the rhetoric of mathematical authors, which is of interest in its own right but which may not have a direct relationship to mathematical practice.

'Mastery' is central to current policy in mathematics education in England, influenced by East Asian success in transnational assessments. We scrutinise the prospects for mastery pedagogies to improve pupil attainment in English primary schools. The Mathematics Teacher Exchange (MTE)—an element of the mastery innovation—involves teachers visiting Shanghai and then hosting Shanghai teachers in their schools. Informed by programme evaluation, core component practices are analysed, which were implemented by schools belonging to the first cohort of MTE schools. These consist of: varied and interactive teaching; meaningful and coherent mathematical activity; and full curriculum access for all. These elements are supported, optimally, by collaborative, embedded, and mathematically focused professional development. Details of the implemented pedagogy and forms of professional development are reported. Differences from prevailing practice in primary mathematics in England are highlighted. Evidence is reviewed from quasi-experimental trials, reviews and meta-analyses, and rigorous observational studies of the efficacy of practices similar to the MTE mastery pedagogy components in order to assess the prospects for increases in pupil attainment. The analysis suggests that many of the specific practices, if considered individually, have the potential to improve attainment, though overall policy ambitions may not be realised. Based on the review, component practices are identified for which existing evidence justifies immediate implementation by schools and teachers. In addition, practices that would benefit from further testing and evaluation are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]