As part of Get the Nation Learning Week, I’ve been reflecting on my own experiences of lifelong learning. I’ve been fortunate enough to see adult maths education from different perspectives: as a teacher of adult GCSE and Functional Skills maths learners and now as someone who supports the teachers working with those learners.
Both have shown that it’s not too late to develop new skills, build confidence or discover a different way of thinking.
What adult maths learners have taught me
National Numeracy has long highlighted the important role that confidence plays in developing mathematical skills particularly among women.
Research from The Richmond Project’s Number Nation report reinforces this, finding that women were 14 percentage points more likely than men to fall into the low-confidence, low-competence group. The research also highlights a real appetite for learning. 90% of parents expressed an interest in improving their children’s numeracy skills, while 78% wanted to improve their own. Yet one in five parents said they wouldn’t feel confident helping their children with maths homework.
These findings resonate with my own experiences. The majority of the adult learners I taught were women, and one of the biggest barriers they faced wasn’t their mathematical ability, but their belief that they couldn’t do maths. The reality was that most of these adults could do maths and did so every day but didn’t recognise it as such because it wasn’t presented in a classroom context.
One of the most rewarding parts of teaching adults was helping them make those connections, recognise what they could already do and build on that understanding.
That’s why it’s important to think a little differently and perhaps shift our focus to building confidence through strategies such as mastery, already used widely in schools, which focuses on helping learners develop a deeper understanding of maths, making connections between concepts and understanding why methods work, rather than simply memorising procedures. Adults bring a huge amount of lived experience to the classroom, and we can use relevant contexts to bring maths to life, developing both skills and self-belief.
What teachers of adult maths have taught me
Since joining Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI), I’ve gained a much greater appreciation of the sheer diversity of adult maths education. Maths is taught in further education colleges, adult and community learning settings, workplaces, independent training providers, the secure sector and many other environments.
The settings and learners may be very different, but many of the challenges are surprisingly similar. Teachers are often working with learners who have very different starting points, levels of confidence and experiences of maths. They may be teaching several levels within the same group, sometimes online, sometimes face to face, and often with limited time and resources.
Appetite for learning
From my own experience as a teacher of adult maths, I always felt a little isolated. There were limited opportunities for professional development specifically aimed at those working with adult learners. That’s why it’s so rewarding, through my role at MEI, to share new ideas, strategies and perspectives with teachers who are always enthusiastic and appreciative of the opportunity to develop their practice.
The Multiply programme provided valuable opportunities to deliver this support to more teachers. Although funding for professional development in adult maths education is now more limited, the need for it, and the appetite among teachers to continue learning and developing their practice, remain as strong as ever.
Through initiatives such as our Maths Mastery in an Adult Setting programme and the Adult Maths Education and Skills Network, we’re continuing to bring teachers together to share ideas, develop their mathematical understanding and explore approaches that can make a difference in their classrooms.
The feedback we receive reinforces just how valuable these opportunities can be:
“This was really useful; it was just the type of inspiration that I needed to help lower abilities and higher abilities within one group.”
“Really good session, very relevant to what we do on a day-to-day basis in class.”
One of the key things I’ve learned is that the most inspiring teachers are learners themselves. They’re curious, reflective and willing to try something new. They share ideas, learn from one another and continually look for ways to improve their practice.
Let’s keep the nation learning
For me, Get the Nation Learning Week is about recognising that everyone has the capacity to learn and that learning can happen at any age, in all sorts of settings and in many different ways.
It’s about helping adults rediscover confidence in skills they may have written off years ago. It’s about giving teachers opportunities to develop, experiment and learn from one another. And it’s about recognising that we’re all learners, whatever our age or experience.
For more information on MEI’s Maths Mastery in an Adult Setting programme and the Adult Maths Education and Skills Network visit:
Or get in touch at: jude.mortimer@mei.org.uk