ABSTRACT
The General Certifi cate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in Mathematics is a course that is assessed by written examination at the end of compulsory schooling in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As Margaret Brown elaborates in her chapter, the exam papers and the grades awarded are the subject of ongoing debates in the media and among people interested in secondary mathematics education. In this chapter we will explore two central themes of these debates. The fi rst is the contention that the exam papers sat by children are not fi t for purpose because they lack ‘rigour’ and are getting ‘easier’ over time. This is a widely held belief commonly propagated by some politicians and by elements of the media. The key evidence for this contention is the year on year increase in the number of students getting higher grades. The second debate theme we will consider is that GCSE exams present mathematics as a fragmented discipline made up of isolated ideas, rather than as a coherent body of connected ideas. This is a belief common among teachers, researchers and other professionals who are concerned this fragmentary presentation has a detrimental impact on how maths is perceived, taught and learned in many secondary classrooms.
