Mathematics is not only taught because it is useful. It should be a source of delight and wonder, offering pupils intellectual excitement and an appreciation of its essential creativity. In this article, the author discusses four basic principles that he currently believes: (1) All children can do mathematics; (2) Active participation is required…

This article describes how children learn the basic addition and subtraction facts, why many have difficulty mastering these basic skills, and what teachers can do to prevent or overcome these learning difficulties.

Purpose--The purpose of this article is to review literature in certain areas and report on related results from a study of successful school principalship in the Australian state of Tasmania. Design/methodology/approach--Surveys on successful school principalship were distributed to a population of 195 government schools (excluding colleges and…

Background: The study investigated a small range of cognitive abilities, related to visual-spatial intelligence, in adolescents. This specific range of cognitive abilities was termed "graphic abilities" and defined as a range of abilities to visualise and think in three dimensions, originating in the domain of visual-spatial…

The approaches to teaching and learning mathematics in Australian preschools and schools can be quite different. These differences arise from what can be termed different "cultures" within the prior-to-school and school settings. Even the first years of school can be characterized by teacher-centered, syllabus-driven lessons and written,…

There are very few jobs today that do not require basic literacy and numeracy skills. Even when the job itself is manual, employees need to read health and safety notices, fill in a job sheet and check their pay and overtime hours. Service industry jobs place even more demands on the workforce, with their emphasis on efficiently and rapidly…

Beyond Crossroads is a call to action. Within this call, AMATYC has updated its 1995 Crossroads standards, developed a new set of guiding principles, and created a blueprint for implementing these revised principles and standards. The principles guiding Beyond Crossroads are a significant overhaul of their predecessors and are bold statements that…

The paper reports on a multi-country review of formative assessment in adult education settings with specific reference to basic literacy and numeracy. It reports many examples of emergent innovative practice in Europe and elsewhere but concludes that there is a real need to develop a stronger conceptual base for formative assessment, as well as…

Formerly, literacy was considered the basic ability to read and write. Now, literacy is defined as "an individual's ability to read, write, speak in English, compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job, in the family of the individual and in society." With this broader definition, mathematical literacy, or…

The field of adult literacy in England has a long history, but has particularly developed during the last three decades. Along with the rest of post-school education and training, it has been substantially reshaped by national policy initiatives since the 1970s. During this period it has struggled to assert itself as a legitimate area of policy…

This paper investigates how teacher education programmes provide adequate preparation for its prospective teachers. It uses adult numeracy teacher education in the post-compulsory education sector in England as exemplar. Using findings from two research projects on adult numeracy teacher education courses, the article investigates the applications…

This document incorporates source materials from local and regional newspapers from different parts of the United Kingdom into learning activities to develop literacy skills. The activities are organized into seven sections as follows: local newspapers (types of local newspapers, regular and special features, columns and blocks, and reading the…

This paper discusses ways to use worked examples in teaching mathematics. It is argued that neither investigative teaching such as discovery learning nor lecturing and starting from the abstract are helpful as they are based on emotive associations with general labels rather than precise details of pedagogic strategies. (KHR)

At the present time, state mandated testing is solely in mathematics and reading, so it behooves schools to provide the best mathematics curriculum. Adults who are deficient in numeracy face difficulties in the societal arena. Objectives in mathematics need to be carefully selected by the teacher. Three categories of objectives should be stressed:…

The project's focus was to learn more about the ways to best assess and support the development of numeracy in the early grades. Project goals include involving teachers and researchers in: (1) the creation and use of performance-based tasks most appropriate for assessing numeracy in young learners; (2) the development and refinement of…