ABSTRACT
This chapter reports to Scottish Office sponsored research at Stirling University, 'Policies, Practices and Provision for Children with Specific Learning Difficulties', which concentrated on reading and writing. The national guidelines for mathematics 5-14, in considering pupils with special educational needs, discuss the benefits of 'programmes with mathematically restricted pathways' while emphasising that 'these programmes, would, nevertheless, be built upon the principles of the existing curriculum'. The chapter describes possible policy developments which might stem from teachers' views. The most striking of the implications seemed to concern our curriculum philosophy – teachers expressed the view that difficulties with mathematics might not always result from inadequate teaching methods and might sometimes be attributable to within-pupil characteristics. The original research question asked whether provision reflected teachers' perceptions of difficulties with mathematics. In addition to the insights it provided into teachers' understandings of pupils' difficulties with mathematics, the project raised two key issues, one research-based and one curricular.
