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New research published today by the University of Sussex shows that parental influence has a far greater impact on a child's maths performance than any factor related to the school environment.
Psychologists at the University of Sussex found that parents' own academic ability and their relationship with their children was a stronger predictor of achievement than students' feelings about the school or individual teachers.
The finding that a positive school climate, good teacher-student relationships or exceptional teacher characteristic did not have a strong effect on improving students' mathematical ability surprised the researchers.
Danielle Evans, lead author of the University of Sussex Mathematics Achievement Researchers, said: "This series of studies shows that parental influence is one of the most important predictors of pupils' mathematics achievement, but it does not deny the importance of schools and teachers. Teachers need to create positive and fair teaching environments, especially at a secondary school level."
The study, the third in a series of papers published by the Royal Society, sheds light on the most important predictors of maths achievement in primary and secondary education and shows that the indicator is statistically significant.
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The study found that primary school pupils who enjoy maths are likely to enter secondary school nearly a year earlier than their peers.
Children who liked math and found it interesting and important did better than their peers who had negative attitudes toward it, although the study authors noted that this finding did not show a cause-and-effect relationship.
The study combined data from nearly 7,000 students and focused on the effects of school climate, student-teacher relationships, teacher characteristics, attitudes toward mathematics, and perceptions of mathematics teachers to explore predictors of achievement trajectories in elementary and secondary school mathematics.
The authors found that secondary students performed better in mathematics if they believed their teacher treated all of their classmates equally, but the teacher's actual level of instruction had little effect on achievement.
Neither the teacher's own sophisticated understanding of the subject, nor attempts to make teaching interesting, emphasize the importance of mathematics, significantly improving student performance in mathematics. To illustrate, this is actually a statistically significant finding for overall achievement.
The authors argue that this finding is supported by previous research highlighting the devastating effects of environmental changes during the transition between elementary and secondary schools.
"Our findings also highlight the need for secondary schools to help students feel comfortable by providing a warmer school climate and by making the educational environment for young people a more positive one. We found a surprisingly negative link between the two, with pupils who excel in maths potentially having a less than pleasant time in secondary school."