intensive use of memorisation than girls when learning mathematics. Memorisation as a learning strategy may work with easy … problems, but it is unlikely to be effective if it is the only strategy used when confronted with complex mathematics problems. …

countries, the 20% of students who are most exposed to pure mathematics tasks (equations) score, on the PISA mathematics test … mathematics tasks is much less strongly associated with better performance. About 19% of the performance difference between socio …-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students can be attributed to differences in familiarity with mathematics. In Austria and Korea …

interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts to describe, predict and explain phenomena, recognising the role that mathematics … plays in the world. The mean score is the measure. A mathematically literate student recognises the role that mathematics …

This issue of the Adult Skills in Focus series looks at gender differences in reading (literacy) and mathematics …