The hypothesis if that the quality of a student's experience of, and engagement in, mathematics is critical to their developing disposition and 'identity', and so to their choices and subsequent success in mathematically demanding programmes (MDP) in HE. This project therefore focused on how different mathematics educational practices at A2/BTEC level and in transition to HE influence students' developing dispositions towards and decisions about MDP in HE. We focused on transitional practices and investigated their effects on learner identities, learning outcomes and decisions of students' in sociocultural and institutional contexts. Building on our previous TLRP project, its methodology, and the instruments it developed, this project had two distinct strands which inform each other. The survey tracked students longitudinally surveying a cohort of diverse students as they move from pre-university to the end of their first year at university (and beginning of the 2nd). This included measures of student's social and educational background, performance, disposition towards future study of, and perceived self-efficacy in mathematics, allowing us to measure the effect of programmes and practices on outcomes. This project focuses on how different mathematics educational practices at 16-19 influence students' developing dispositions towards and decisions about study in High Education, and students’ success in first year HE. A longitudinal survey will track a cohort of students learning outcomes and decisions as they move from Level 3 study to the end of their first year at university, and provide evidence of the effectiveness of programmes and transitional practices. Case Studies will draw on the stories of transition of 40 individual students' and related field studies in 4 universities and 8 Departments where different transition approaches are being practiced in regard to mathematics 'diagnostic assessment and targeted support', 'widening participation' and ‘school-university collaboration initiatives'. Outcomes will include understandings of (i) the diversity of student experience of learning mathematics in 6fFE for transition into STEM in HE; (ii) how educational transition practices and policies impact on student choices, dispositions and retention, and thus (iii) how initiatives might be more successful in engaging learners in mathematics.

The data was collected through in-depth interviews, telephone interviews and postal and online questionnaires. The data collection consists of: 1 quantitative dataset - spreadsheet with data from about 1700 students, who were surveyed for up to 3 times. Also, 276 transcripts in two different groups: (1) 173 files of (longitudinal) interviews with students from 1 to 3 time points; these files are matched since the same students pseudonym is used for all occasions; and (2) approximately 100 additional files include interviews with lectures, teachers from feeder colleges, students in focus groups and other student interviews we did not follow throughout the project. The Case Studies involved more than 40 individual students' educational-life stories based on a set of three interviews and related field studies as they progressed through the university transition. These individual studies provided rich accounts of how sociocultural and educational factors can influence decisions and afford/constrain their identities as learners of mathematics and mathematically demanding subjects. Case studies of educational practices were conducted in 5 HE institutions. Our analyses and results are therefore anchored in theory and well-grounded in richly-described case studies and evidence of effectiveness from survey measurement.