Mathematics lecturers have long expressed concern about their students poor mathematical background and the effect this has on performance in first mathematics courses at university level. This article explores a similar concern about students' numeracy in a statistics course for psychologists.

This paper reflects on the use of didactic material in mathematics classes. It focuses on the mathematical activities of students and the didactical activities of teachers. Its point of departure is a critique of technical-managerial approaches to teaching, learning, and innovation. Based on this critique, fundamental tensions between the…

Development in the ability of 11-year-olds to solve numerical problems of addition, multiplication, and proportion was analysed by means of three Rasch models of change. The students, who had participated in a New Zealand numeracy project in 2002, comprised two groups that differed in socio-economic status: 1,274 students came from low…

Discussions of quantitative literacy have become increasingly important, and statistics educators are well aware of the link between statistics education and quantitative literacy. Both the statistics education and quantitative literacy movements have emphasized the importance of students practicing skills in multiple contexts--a goal also…

In a 1999 paper Gersten and Chard proposed that number sense might be to mathematics what phonemic awareness is to reading. They explained the role of phonemic awareness in reading acquisition and its influence on reading research and argued that an understanding of the concept of number sense could be equally influential in the field of…

Charlotte, the author's 11-year-old daughter, was born with Down syndrome, and is currently attending the local middle school. In terms of her disability Charlotte is developing very well and has a reading age of 9+, however her maths skills age is approximately 4 years. It is not necessarily the case that if a child has good language and literacy…

Games are among the many types of activities that can be used to help promote number sense. Chosen and used wisely, games encourage learning and motivate many students to grasp concepts more quickly and fully. This article describes a popular and easy-to-implement number sense game--called Digits and Dice--most commonly used in conjunction with…

There is ample evidence that positive involvement of families in children's learning can be a major contribution. Where to start is often a challenge, however, especially in the numeracy area. As part of the Australian Government's "Numeracy Research and Development Initiative" a team led by Beth Powell in Western Australia has developed…

This article reports on the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) project, entitled "Assessing numeracy in primary schools" (ANIPS) aimed at improving student numeracy outcomes through the development of a whole-school approach that links a comprehensive assessment regime with numeracy teaching and learning. The project examined how the…

The authors discuss proportional reasoning as a challenging yet central concept for students in the middle grades that lays a foundation for mathematics studied later in high school. Four types of proportional reasoning problems are discussed: (1) Part-part-whole (comparing a subset (part) of a whole with its complement (other part) or the whole…

Increasingly, companies are taking part in process improvement programmes, which brings about a growing need for employees to interpret and act on data representations. We have carried out case studies in a range of companies to identify the existence and need of what we call "techno-mathematical literacies" (TmL): functional mathematical…

This article offers an evaluation of the implementation of the American Sociological Association's Integrating Data Analysis Project in a large introductory sociology course. This project was designed following an examination of the curricula of 13 disciplines that revealed that sociology failed to integrate empirical, quantitative literacy…

This article describes the use of the book "Inchworm and a Half" to stimulate children's investigations in measurement and number. During a two-day lesson children used physical models and visual representations to develop measurement skills and explore equivalent relationships.

This study examined non-accredited community language, literacy and numeracy provision in Australia. A diverse range of providers assist many adults who do not need or cannot yet cope with accredited training. Growth in self-confidence appears as important as development of literacy and numeracy skills, with teachers and tutors playing a key role…

This paper presents the results of a study developed in the context of indigenous teachers education from Xingu Indian Park, Brazil. The indigenous bilingual (or multilingual in some cases) teachers that participated in this education program were from 14 ethnic groups. The research focused on a mathematics textbook production, written in…