What does it mean to be numerate?

I’ve just spent two days at a thought provoking-symposium at the University of Galway - the International Symposium on Numeracy Education.

Building on the meeting of a mathematical literacy study group at ICME-15, last year in Sydney, this bought together maths educators from around the world who see mathematics as a domain of study that should ensure that learners become numerate. In many instances at the symposium participants provided insight into attempts in their country to work towards this by working on “numeracy across the curriculum”.

The symposium did not spend much time discussing what we mean by terms such as “numeracy”, “quantitative literacy”, “mathematical literacy” and so on, as this didn’t appear a productive way to use our time together. Indeed, I am wondering if a better approach is to consider what it means to be numerate, rather than expend a lot of time and energy trying to pin down “numeracy” as a “thing”.

I rather like something brief like: “To be numerate is to use mathematics effectively to meet the general demands of life at home, in paid work, and for participation in community and civic life” that comes from the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT). You can find out more about AAMT’s position here.

What was great about the symposium was that it provided a forum for those of us who are concerned about developing numerate young adults, and indeed citizens of all ages. We live in a time when we might hope that we can raise numeracy levels given the globally challenging times we are living through.?

In England we are in the middle of a curriculum and assessment review led by Becky Francis . Only this week the review group published an interim report. So, I turned to it to see what the thinking is about this important aspect of education.

The word “numeracy” appears only once in the report pointing to its importance: “increased levels of numeracy and literacy have been shown to have strong positive associations with earnings, employment, health, life satisfaction, and civic engagement”. I was perhaps over-expecting, then, to look for some indication of how such gains might be facilitated by reforms following the review so I turned to search on “mathematics/.maths” more generally to see if I might be enlightened.

?In terms of getting an insight into how we might work towards developing more numerate citizens it seems that GCSE is considered the answer, even though the report acknowledges that GCSE resits are hugely problematic, and do not provide a good experience for those who do not achieve a grade 4 or above in maths at 16. That is a whole other area where my research is focused (see masteringmaths.org) but that lies, in my view, outside of the debate around what it means to be numerate.

?The Review’s interim report states, “From the perspectives of both social justice and economics, it is vital that we take the necessary steps to drive up standards for young people who are presently underserved by our education system”.

Improving standards in GCSE Maths, as currently formulated, specified and assessed seems to be advocated as the answer, but I believe will not do anything to address issues of numeracy. That will require a much wider debate. Let’s hope that the Review will not prove to be an opportunity lost. Let’s hope that the review will address what it means to be numerate and how we might better facilitate that in our curriculum at this stage whilst there is an opportunity to do so. It it's not considered at this point the work that the outcomes of the review will generate will knock numeracy off the agenda for a number of years to come.