The use of teaching assistants (TAs) is widespread in many education systems, but the ways that TAs can support learning effectively are poorly understood. Much evidence indicates that most TA support has no, or negative, effects on pupil attainment. A small but growing body of evidence shows that structured TA intervention programmes can be…

The Partners in Literacy and Numeracy Western Australia (PLaN WA) program was implemented within a School of Education to complement initial teacher education offerings. In forming a mutually beneficial service-learning program, schools received support from pre-service teachers to assist both primary and secondary students with their literacy and…

Although quantitative reasoning (QR) is central to general education, many college students lack fundamental numeracy skills. In response, The City University of New York established a QR faculty development program that trained instructors across the disciplines through teaching exercises, guided discussions, hands-on activities, the development…

In 2000, the government of the Philippines launched its National Service Training Program (NSTP), a compulsory 2-semester course component for all the country's Bachelor and technical vocational students. There is a choice of three subject areas, one of which is the Literacy Training Service (LTS) module. This is designed to train students in…

Numeracy has increasingly become a topic of importance and concern in our contemporary society. Student success in numeracy is influenced by the positive attitudes and values they hold about mathematics. This outreach project sought to foster the development of such attitudes and values through the design, implementation, and evaluation of a…

A key intervention of the South African Numeracy Chair Project (SANCP) since 2011 has been the introduction of mathematics (or maths) clubs, which occur in the out-of-school time space. In 2016 the maths club concept was developed into a 15-week Pushing for Progression (PfP) teacher development programme which supports primary school mathematics…

The ageing labour force, and concerns with productivity and social inclusion have driven foundation skills policy development in Australia and internationally (SCOTESE 2012; Newton 2016). However, little existing literature focusses on the relationships between foundation skills, community education providers and regional location. Thus, this…

Analyses of literacy and numeracy levels worldwide by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggest that the U.S. population has one of the lowest numeracy levels among developed nations. Sixty-four percent of American adults are unable to use math and interpret math problems that most higher-level jobs require, and a full 30…

Many college students are required to take at least one developmental math course, but as many as half of them fail to complete their developmental math requirements and never matriculate into college-level courses. To address this issue, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin created the Dana Center Mathematics Pathways…

To meet the demand of the incoming school curriculum reform focusing on competency-based learning in Vietnam, this paper reports on an innovation project on developing secondary mathematics preservice teachers' (PSTs) mathematical literacy and preparing them to teach mathematics contextually. We developed a curriculum and studied the effectiveness…

While measures of research quality are widely accepted in the education research community, there may be less agreement on what constitutes evidence of impact and on where to look for it. The aims of this symposium are to consider some key issues in undertaking the Australian government's national assessment of research engagement and impact, and…

Defined as language, literacy and numeracy, and employability skills, foundation skills are essential for individuals to participate in further education, employment and wider society. Community education providers, such as community colleges, neighbourhood houses, faith-based organisations and adult learning associations, are key providers of…

The need to endow marketing graduates with skills relevant to employability grows ever more important. Marketing math and elementary financial understanding are essential employability skills, particularly given the contemporary emphasis on marketing metrics, but the evidence is that marketing graduates are often relatively weak in such skills.…

Australia appears to be in the grip of a "literacy crisis" in workplaces. Media reports and industry/skills organisations are decrying the low literacy and numeracy levels of workers and the negative effects these have on productivity. As a consequence, the Australian government has increased funding for workplace literacy and numeracy…

This article describes some outcomes of a nine-month design-based research study into the professional development of 24 numeracy teachers with post-16 learners. Teachers analysed research-based principles for teaching, and engaged in a design-research process by testing and refining teaching activities to embody these principles. Data from…