| Abstract: | One of the greatest problems in teaching mathematics arises from the diversity of pupils' attainments. For decades, this has been managed by primary class teachers in England by adopting an approach of within-class grouping or differentiation according to attainment-level. During the last two years, however, government initiatives have increased the focus on a whole-class approach to teaching mathematics. This has led to an increase in the number of schools adopting a policy of grouping between parallel classes, or 'setting' by attainment within classes in order to contain the range of attainment in each teaching group and to make whole-class teaching a realistic possibility. Earlier research studies have outlined the benefits of grouping by attainment for subsequent learning in mathematics, especially for higher-attaining pupils; the results this article uses challenge the findings of earlier studies. Newly available data from a large-scale primary mathematics project are examined which indicate that the attainments of pupils taught in mixed-ability classes are at least equal to those of pupils in schools set by attainment. |
