A Study of the Implementation and Impact of Project Maths

Project Maths is an initiative which involves the complete revision of the mathematics ‎curriculum at junior and senior cycles at post-primary level.  Project Maths began in 24 ‘initial’ ‎schools in 2008 and was rolled out, on a phased basis, to all post-primary schools in the ‎country in the autumn of 2010.

Mathematics was the main focus of the PISA 2012 study and a decision was made ‎nationally to administer the PISA 2012 assessment in all of the initial Project Maths schools ‎as results of the mathematics assessment in these schools are of particular national interest.  ‎A national questionnaire was administered to all mathematics teachers in schools ‎participating in PISA 2012 in Ireland.  A national questionnaire was also administered to ‎mathematics school co-ordinators in participating schools.  These questionnaires examined ‎teachers’ views on mathematics teaching and learning in general, as well the implementation ‎of Project Maths.

Analysis of teachers’ views on the implementation of Project Maths, including ‎comparisons of the views of teachers in initial and non-initial schools, has been published in a ‎report entitiled, Teaching and learning in Project Maths: Insights from teachers who ‎participated in PISA 2012 (Cosgrove, Perkins, Shiel, Fish & McGuinness, 2012). Results ‎of analyses of PISA mathematics achievement data in initial Project Maths schools, ‎compared with non-initial schools, will be the focus of a separate report, PISA and Project ‎Maths, which will be published in 2014.‎