Numeracy: Part of a larger literacy program

The second thing that must be said about teaching and learning numeracy is that it is most effective when blended into a larger overall program of developing literacy skills and knowledge. Numeracy taught in isolation from other areas such as reading, writing and spelling will not be as effective. Thus, a mathematics learning session should include components in which the learner reads, writes and spells as part of the session.

For example, a learner reads the newspaper to find examples of percentages. He then writes out a list of the areas in which percentages are used in the paper, such as the sports section and sales flyers. Finally, he highlights any words he has difficulty spelling. He can then discuss areas in his life where he uses percentages, such as when shopping or figuring out employment income and benefits.

Problem-solving and communicating mathematically

The emphasis in mathematics teaching and learning in the past has been to concentrate on number operations and computation. While this is indeed crucial, there are other areas now considered to be equally important. Two skills, in particular, are emphasized for developing well-rounded skills and knowledge that learners can apply in concrete ways every day:

• Problem-solving
• Communicating

Problem-solving refers to the ability of learners to generate, organize, evaluate and apply mathematics both on paper and in real-life situations. Terms that illustrate the reasoning involved in these stages are contained in the following table. These terms are useful for developing questions that will promote learners’ ability to reason and problem-solve mathematically.