In Ireland, Initial Teacher Education [ITE] standards require all teachers to possess an adequate level of numeracy themselves in order to teach for numeracy learning across the school curriculum. This paper reports on a study that investigated 204 pre-service post-primary teachers' numeracy capabilities. Analysis of questionnaire data from…

This paper explores Grade R teacher expressions of themselves as teachers of numeracy, and as teachers working in the transition phase of schooling, after their participation in a research-informed numeracy-focused professional development (PD) intervention. The Early Number Fun (ENF) programme had 33 teachers from 17 Eastern Cape schools…

This article reports and compares results from an interview study of early childhood teachers in the U.S. and Hong Kong, with a focus on the math outcomes that children may gain from play with unit blocks. Teachers were interviewed to obtain their ideas of the benefits of unit block play in three focal areas: geometry, measurement, and numeracy.…

Numeracy is the responsibility of all teachers in Australia. Graduates from Initial Teacher Education programs must demonstrate knowledge and understanding of numeracy teaching strategies. Currently, there is a limited research base to inform curriculum design of courses that develop strategies for embedding numeracy across the curriculum. This…

Supporting pre-service primary teachers to develop the required specialist knowledge for teaching mathematics is a complex task. The knowledge required for mathematics teaching at primary level is multi-faceted and the efficacy of mathematics teaching is inextricably intertwined with a teacher's own beliefs and attitudes about mathematics and…

In 2015, a new Master of Teaching coursework unit, Numeracy for Learners and Teachers, was introduced at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The drivers for the establishment of the unit were the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership numeracy standards for graduate teachers and the inclusion of numeracy as a general…

Currently Australian pre-service teachers' levels of personal numeracy are under a great deal of scrutiny. There are calls for universities to raise entry standards into teaching degrees and counter-calls that the output of universities should be gauged rather than inputs. In 2015, doubts about the ability of graduate teachers to convey the…

The nature of numeracy implies that both mathematics and social context are involved. In the Australian curriculum, numeracy is included as one of seven general capabilities that it is the responsibility of every teacher to develop in their students. Many teachers, however, dislike or actively avoid mathematics. This situation tends to lead to…

One of the capabilities needed for effective participation in modern society is numeracy, which is the ability to cope effectively with the mathematical demands of life. While the development of numeracy continues beyond the school years, schools nevertheless have a responsibility to provide opportunities for students to expand their numeracy…

This paper reports on a survey of views of inclusive education expressed by nearly 300 Malaysian primary school teachers involved in remedial literacy and numeracy education under the country's Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Overall, the views expressed were positive towards the principle of inclusion. However, despite common professional…

With the advent of the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications policy (MRTEQ), higher education institutions (HEIs) are rethinking curricula for teacher training in order to enable entree for in-service teachers to reskill, retrain and have access to higher qualifications. In the field of mathematical literacy (ML), most teacher…

This paper reviews recent literature on teacher identity in order to propose an operational framework that can be used to investigate the formation and development of numeracy teacher identities. The proposed framework is based on Van Zoest and Bohl's (2005) framework for mathematics teacher identity with a focus on those characteristics thought…

In this article, I present an initial analysis of an empirical study that was undertaken in an attempt to elicit what subject-matter knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge and curriculum knowledge teachers bring to bear on decisions for teaching. The analysis is based on interview data with 46 Grade 3 teachers, who were presented with two…

If teachers are to adequately support development of their students' numeracy capabilities then they need to have an identity as a teacher of numeracy. A preliminary evaluation of a conceptual framework (Bennison & Goos, 2013) developed for use in a two-year study that seeks to understand this construct is presented. Initial findings about an…

Establishing the mathematical content knowledge of pre-service teachers is a requirement in New Zealand. However, this knowledge is not clearly defined and is a challenge for initial teacher education providers to assess. We develop the concept of foundation content knowledge and suggest how it can be assessed using two forms of diagnostic…