Teaching mathematics for success: A data-driven review and analysis of best practices

Recent PISA 2022 results show that a relatively large proportion of EU students underachieve in mathematics. While this outcome has been partially driven by Covid-19, one should not forget that the decline in student performance was already under way before the pandemic. Evidence indicates that poor mathematics skills can have a detrimental impact on people’s life, leading to financial problems, academic struggles and professional setbacks. This situation underscores the urgent need for Member States to invest in programmes aimed at improving students’ mathematics achievement. In an attempt to assist Member States in identifying effective programmes to enhance students’ mathematics competences, this report synthetises relevant literature and adds some original research work. A rapid umbrella review is carried out to summarise evidence on what policies work best and which do not. Furthermore, PISA 2022 data are used to investigate the impact of digital resources on mathematics test scores. The findings from these two exercises concur in questioning the role of digital technologies in raising students’ performance in mathematics. Existing review studies do not consistently find technology-aided instruction to be among the best policies. Similarly, our analysis of PISA data does not show a positive association between the use of digital resources in mathematics classes and mathematics test scores. However, the empirical estimates suggest that students perform better in mathematics in those schools offering their teachers professional development in the area of integrating digital resources into mathematics instruction.