Magnitude is assumed to be represented along a holistic mental number line in adults. However, the authors recently observed a unit-decade compatibility effect for 2-digit numbers that is inconsistent with this "holisticness" assumption (H.-C. Nuerk, U. Weger, & K. Willmes, 2001). This study used the compatibility effect to examine whether the…

Recent research suggests that multi-strand and interlinked interventions meet the requirements of early primary school intervention programmes more fully than single programmes. A set of quality indicators, which education authorities and schools can utilize to review and evaluate processes and outcomes of such interventions, is derived from the…

In this paper we review the literature on the impact of workplace basic skills training on individuals, as measured by their effects on wages and employment probability. In addition, we also examine studies on the returns to individuals of general training at the workplace. On the whole, the evidence suggests that better numeracy and literacy…

The purpose of this study was to explore cognitive process used by selected preservice elementary teachers on basic types of problems involving number sense. The sample was selected from students in six intact entry-level mathematics sections of a course populated by preservice elementary school teachers. In the beginning of the semester, the…

This article illustrates students' efforts to resolve an apparent discrepancy between their self-generated solutions and the answer obtained using the division algorithm for fractions. (Contains 5 figures.)

It has long been orthodoxy among adult educators that those who teach adults need to take into account the existing knowledge, practices, perceptions and expectations of the learners. This is true at both central level where curricula and teaching-learning materials are developed and at local level where adult teacher/facilitator meets adult…

Two studies were carried out to examine the persistence (Study 1) and characteristics (Study 2) of mathematics learning disability (MLD) in girls with Turner syndrome or fragile X during the primary school years (ages 5-9 years). In Study 1, the rate of MLD for each syndrome group exceeded the rate observed in a grade-matched comparison group,…

Purpose: To establish the existence of barriers to communication and numeracy skills development and to establish the levels of these exhibited by accounting and business students at the commencement of their courses in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: Uses questionnaires to establish the levels of communication apprehension (CA) and…

The term "quantitative literacy" is used in this article to reinforce its importance in catering for reform-based curricula in Australia. The medium chosen for the problems discussed in this paper is the newspaper. The purpose of this article is to tie together traditional views of the importance of problem solving with the current aims…

In this article, the authors visited with the Arsenal Double Club Coordinator, Scott an amateur footballer, and a career teacher who is able to bring his considerable experience and administrative skill to the project. The authors were delighted to realise that they were talking to a teacher committed to what is first and foremost an educational…

Drawing on a perspective of mathematics as situated social practice, we focus on 4 children in an urban preschool classroom and follow those children between home and school sites to shed light on urban children's persistent underachievement in mathematics. In this article, we describe the ways in which numeracy practices travel with children…

The study set out to investigate the impact of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) on teacher--pupil interaction at Key Stage 2 in the teaching of literacy and numeracy. As part of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, IWBs have been made widely available as a pedagogic tool for promoting interactive whole class teaching. In order to…

Literacy educators have been actively theorising the demands of literacy in New Times yet mathematics educators have taken little of this debate up. If, as literacy educators suggest, literacy demands are different in these New Times, what are the implications for numeracy or mathematics educators? This paper explores perceptions of young and…

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has introduced a Numeracy Project for students aged 5-14 years in selected schools. The project encourages the adoption of flexible strategies for solving numerical problems, and discourages reliance on standard computational algorithms. One potential benefit of the project is that the methods students acquire…

This paper presents an overview of events in Aotearoa/New Zealand mathematics education over the past decade or so. We begin with the curriculum reforms of the 1990s that led to the development of the current mathematics curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1992), and document developments in policy, resources and approaches to teaching. There has…