This report describes the intervention programs used to improve student proficiency in learning, recalling, and retaining basic mathematics facts. The targeted population consisted of first, second, third, and fifth grades in four suburban midwestern schools. The problems of recalling basic mathematics facts is documented through teacher surveys,…

South Bank University in London offers a summer mathematics course that gives mature students with few formal qualifications the opportunity to gain math skills for further education. The program features small groups, tutors experienced in adult education, and attention to confidence building. (SK)

Focused on cardinality acquisition (thought to be crucial to correct counting) and on the relation between cardinality and counting. Gathered data with three groups of children three to five years old on four kinds of tasks. Found no empirical evidence for considering counting as a single prerequisite to cardinality. Suggests new approach to…

Discusses the use of some approaches from literacy in adult numeracy classrooms. Describes and advocates the use of students' texts, as group reading material, as a way of unsettling tutor-centered classroom discourses and outlines approaches to generating student-written texts. (Author/VWL)

Uses number sense to involve students in calendar activities based on the Julian and Gregorian calendars. (YDS)

Examines fundamental questions about how people process numbers. Several cognitive numerical representations are defined. The current major theories of numerical cognition are described with emphasis on how they differ in their assumptions about numerical representations and how these differences are reflected in the positions taken on various…

Numeracy involves a set of social practices situated within a particular culture and ideology. The concept has implications for definition of math standards. A social practice approach to adult numeracy in South Africa is recommended. (SK)

A study of numeracy practices in metal engineering companies found that, rather than increasingly being shared, decision making of workers and managers rarely overlapped. Basic numeracy has come to mean a way of knowing that differs from the competence needed to pass mathematics examinations. (SK)

A study identified the numeracy demands for English, social-science, and math-education majors. Results were used to develop a framework that described the numeracy demands of academic texts and tasks. A need to integrate literacy and numeracy in academic programs was evident. (SK)

Discusses briefly the call for mathematical literacy and the need for a model that articulates the fluid and dynamic nature of this form of literacy. Presents such a model which uses two concentric circles, one depicting the four processes of mathematical literacy (representing, manipulating, reasoning, and problem solving) and enablers that…

Documents a workplace literacy program for people with disabilities in Australia. Activities include rewriting government service standards into plain English, formulating individualized employment plans, conducting a skills audit, and focusing on numeracy needs. (SK)

Number rhymes can be used in many exciting and different ways to support the early learning goals for mathematics. The rhyme "five little speckled frogs" provides the theme for this display, which was set up in Lewisham's professional development center. It provides a range of ideas which would help develop young children's mathematical learning…

A British longitudinal study measured adult numeracy at ages 16 and 37. The longer the absence from paid employment, the greater the negative impact on numeracy. This effect was strongest for men who had poor math scores at 16. (SK)

This article considers skills and abilities of young children with number in the areas of cardinality and ordinality. Responses to number tasks by a sample of 3- and 4-year-old children are described to outline their differing approaches to determining the numerosity of a set, and to establish their application of ordinality language to describe…

This article discusses the challenges students face in making sense of zero as a number. A range of different student responses to a computation problem involving zero reveal students' different understandings of zero.