Offers new insights into learning and teaching critical numeracy. Makes distinctions between generative or computational numeracy tasks and interpretive numeracy tasks, and between mathematically confined interpretation and critical evaluation that leads to action. (Author/VWL)

Uses a life-sized number line to helps students visualize number relationships. (Contains 45 references.) (YDS)

Reports on research conducted by the Queensland Centre of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Australian Research Consortium within the civil construction industry. Argues that the dominant discourse of new capitalism adopt the rhetoric of worker empowerment while actually implementing technologies of top-down control. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for…

Describes a mathematics-literacy project that came out of the Literacy Reform Institute: Teachers Training Teachers. Presents activities, assessment techniques, and reflections from the project. (ASK)

Conversations with an adult female student in a math anxiety course uncovered parallels between growing up Catholic and being taught math. The study highlighted the importance of considering total life experience in dealing with math anxiety. Crucial to change are group processes, questioning of self-concept, and questioning of social practices.…

Focusing on student learning rather than the deductive presentation of mathematics is stimulus not only to discover theorems and proofs but also to generate meaning of definitions and axioms before their formal articulation. Provides worksheets that enable an intuitive grasp to precede formal definition in the field of elementary group theory for…

Investigates the development of an adaptive strategy for the estimation of numerosity from the theoretical perspective of strategic change. Hypothesizes that there will be a developmental difference in the adaptive use of estimating strategies with age and that this adaptation will produce better estimation. Shows support for both hypotheses. (DSK)

Interviews with 12 adults in General Educational Development classes, four adults in basic math, and 22 preservice teachers assessed their understanding of the part-whole concept, a key element in math success. Gaps in understanding were found in all three groups. (SK)

Describes National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) and National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in England. Presents a lesson plan to discuss pre- and post-NNS. Emphasizes that NNS represents not only a change in pedagogy, but also something of a sea-change in terms of the assumptions about children's learning underpinning traditional mathematics education. (ASK)

Describes the use of lesson starters called Snappies to sharpen numeracy skills. Discusses teachers' views of Snappies, the difficulties of using them, and their impacts on pupils' performance in and perceptions of mathematics. (ASK)

Illustrates the use of learners', rather than teachers', questions as well as interviews to negotiate curriculum in adult literacy and math classes. (SK)

Two Australian projects--integrating numeracy into a construction training course and integrating literacy in rural training--illustrate the development of integrated curricula and the necessity of contextualized, multiple literacies. Literacy is not a set of generic skills to be taught in isolation, but highly specific vocational and social…

Poses several questions about problem solving and provides six reasons that support how problem solving enhances the development of numeracy and mathematical thinking. (ASK)

In the context of increased labor market flexibility and "portfolio work," adults need knowledge of financial services and their interrelationships with insurance, taxation, and welfare systems. One approach uses the radical tradition of adult education to help people develop critical awareness and control of their financial decision…

Five experiments investigated whether adults and preschool children can perform simple arithmetic calculations on non-symbolic numerosities. Previous research has demonstrated that human adults, human infants, and non-human animals can process numerical quantities through approximate representations of their magnitudes. Here we consider whether…