Exploring mathematics teachers’ views on three different forms of end of secondary certification systems

Abstract

The main objective of this qualitative study was to investigate mathematics teachers’ views on different forms of certification systems at the end of secondary education. As part of our research, we designed three alternative certification scenarios, that we introduced to the participants, by means of a presentation. Following the presentation, we collected the data also through semi-structured one-to-one qualitative interviews with eight mathematics teachers, all of whom teach in state secondary schools. The data was analysed using a thematic approach. The research findings suggest that teachers are quite satisfied with the current system of end-of-secondary certification, i.e. the SEC examinations. Indeed, it appears that teachers feel very strongly that certification at end of secondary should be based on a high stakes examination system. They are however likely to accept that a small component of this certification system is based on an element of continuous assessment, such as project work or specifically designed assessment tasks.