Scotland has long held a proud tradition of educational innovation and leadership, yet in recent years, concerns have grown over declining attainment in mathematics among children and young people as well as a decline in PISA standings and outcomes for learners in exam years. Despite ongoing efforts, national and international benchmarks continue to reflect a troubling trend—persistent gaps in numeracy skills, widening disparities in achievement and a growing population of learners who develop maths anxiety at an increasingly early age. More than a crisis of performance, these issues point to deeper pedagogical and philosophical questions about how we approach mathematics education and how we can equip Scotland’s children for their world of tomorrow.
The Big Issues
At the heart of this is the fragile mathematical identity that too many children internalise from a young age. When students feel they are either “good” or “bad” at maths—often based on speed, memorisation or external validation from correct answers—they can become disempowered, disengaged and ultimately alienated from the subject. This identity is often reinforced by societal attitudes that treat mathematical ability as innate, inherited, or fixed. Comments like “I’m just not good at maths” are commonplace among adults, including teachers and parents, inadvertently shaping how children perceive their own potential. Maths anxiety, which is becoming more widely recognised and studied, emerges early and impacts not only performance but also long-term confidence and willingness to engage with numeracy in everyday life.
Another pressing issue is the disconnection of maths from other areas of learning. While Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence aspires to be interdisciplinary, in practice, maths is frequently siloed from the rich contexts in which numeracy naturally occurs—science, art, social studies, even storytelling. This separation contributes to a perception of maths as abstract, irrelevant, or inaccessible. Children are often denied the opportunity to use mathematical thinking as a tool for making sense of the world, or to see its application in creative, collaborative, or exploratory contexts.
What’s the alternative?
To address these challenges, a shift is needed—not only in methodology, but in the underlying philosophy that informs how we teach and learn maths. Central to this shift is the recognition that mathematics is a language, and like every language, it must be taught, spoken, practised, explored, written and reflected upon to be truly understood. This is where journaling offers a radical, research-informed and inclusive approach that meets the needs of 21st-century learners.
Journaling in mathematics invites children to explain their thinking, reflect on strategies, and engage metacognitively with their learning. It highlights oracy and disciplinary literacy (currently relatively absent within Scottish education)—not simply as add-ons to the curriculum, but as essential tools for mathematics as meaning. Through writing and talking, learners come to understand that there are multiple ways to approach a problem, that mistakes are opportunities for insight and that reasoning can be as valuable as a correct answer. It creates space for pupils to connect mathematical concepts with their own experiences, fostering deeper understanding and personal knowledge of their own identities as learners.
This approach also aligns closely with insights from cognitive science on how children learn. Research shows that learners benefit from retrieval practice, elaboration and metacognitive reflection—techniques naturally embedded in journaling. By articulating their reasoning, revisiting prior knowledge and tracking their growth over time, children strengthen neural connections and develop a more coherent, integrated understanding of mathematical ideas. Crucially, journaling supports formative assessment, offering educators rich insight into learners’ thought processes, misconceptions and emerging strengths, allowing for more adaptive and responsive teaching. Writing engages multiple cognitive pathways which helps consolidate learning in long-term memory, while explicit teaching of vocabulary and the use of stem sentences decode “the secret language” of maths for learners.
Moreover, the act of journaling supports equity. Traditional approaches to maths often privilege speed and procedural accuracy, inadvertently marginalising learners who may process differently, use alternative strategies, or need more time to think. Journaling democratises the classroom, valuing each learner’s voice and way of knowing. It provides a platform, particularly for those who may struggle, to contribute thoughtfully and meaningfully. It also helps challenge assumptions about who is “good at maths” by making mathematical thinking visible and valued in diverse forms, personalised for each individual learner.
A Vision for Change
This pedagogical shift holds promise not just for individual classrooms but for national renewal. As Scotland seeks to redefine its role on the international education stage, there is a compelling opportunity to reclaim leadership by embedding a philosophy of inclusive, interdisciplinary and research-informed maths pedagogy. By embracing journaling as a core strategy, Scotland can pioneer a practice that is both grounded in the science of learning and animated by the values of equity, inclusion and curiosity.
The ambition to equip learners with the meta-skills needed for future success—collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and communication—cannot be realised if we do not radically rethink how we approach core subjects like mathematics. Journaling fosters all these skills. It helps learners build resilience by working through challenges, develop adaptability by testing and refining strategies and become numerately literate by making sense of data, patterns and quantities in real-life contexts.
In practice, this approach does not require abandoning current curricular goals or content but rather it enhances them. Fluency and factual knowledge remain key—but journaling supports their development by embedding them within meaningful, reflective practice. Rather than seeing problem-solving as a distinct stage after “learning the basics,” learners are immersed in reasoning from the beginning, seeing mathematics not just as answers, but as a way of thinking and making meaning.
Teachers, too, stand to benefit. Journaling transforms the mathematics classroom into a place of enquiry, dialogue and shared discovery. It encourages pedagogical reflection, creates space for responsive feedback and builds stronger relational trust between teachers and learners.
To lead this change, Scotland must invest in professional development that supports teachers not only in how to implement journaling, but in why it matters. Policymakers must create conditions for innovation—valuing depth over test scores, supporting holistic assessment practices and promoting a public narrative that celebrates mathematical curiosity and growth over innate “ability.”
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, the time is now for Scotland to lead a transformational shift in mathematics education—one that reclaims the subject as joyful, meaningful and accessible to all. Journaling offers more than a method; it represents a new philosophy of learning grounded in talk, reflection and inclusion. By adopting this approach, we can not only raise attainment, but we can also reimagine what it means to be mathematically capable in the 21st century. Scotland can once again be a beacon of educational innovation—by listening to how children think and learn we can empower them to write their own mathematical stories.
Holly Drummond and Kirsten Fenton are experienced primary practitioners at ESMS Junior School, with a keen interest in research and its application in the classroom. They are co-creators of the PACE framework, and their work on oracy, curriculum design and maths journalling has been featured in The Herald and TES. They have also delivered numerous papers at national and international conferences. They are passionate about creating high-impact pedagogy rooted in reflection, equity and learner voice.