What is Numeracy?
Numeracy, when used in the same context as ‘literacy’, means having a grasp of numbers and data and the arithmetic and reasoning necessary for everyday life. It means confidently handling money, understanding interest, using timetables, working out journey times and interpreting graphs and charts – in other words, living in the modern world. As such, numeracy is a concrete and useful concept.
Numeracy goes beyond mere computation – it includes essential skills such as solving problems, understanding and explaining the solutions, making decisions based on logical thinking and reasoning and interpreting data, charts and diagrams.
Being numerate allows you to access and interpret information, identify possibilities, weigh up different options and decide on which option is most appropriate.
When you are applying your knowledge, understanding and skills in unfamiliar contexts, you are problem solving.
The numeracy experiences and outcomes in Curriculum for Excellence have been structured using eight organisers:
- Estimation and rounding
- Number and number processes
- Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages
- Money
- Time
- Measurement
- Data and analysis
- Ideas of chance and uncertainty.
Numeracy Skills & Applications
| Skills | Application |
|---|---|
| Comprehension and interpretation | Researching ‘deals’ for products online to identify the best deal based on numerical information |
| Connecting learning from across experiences and outcomes (combining different numeracy organisers) | Drawing up table of costs on excel spread sheets (data handling) Imputing correct operations or formulas into the spreadsheet to calculate quantities or prices (number and number processes) |
| Problem solving and reasoning | Planning for an event working out how much of a specific resource is required |
| Using and understanding mathematical notation and vocabulary | Discussing, using appropriate vocabulary, the risks involved in decisions |
| Estimating and checking the reasonableness of the answer | Estimating to get a rough idea of how many/how much based on a combination of numeracy skills and context Calculating, as appropriate, to find exact quantities/amounts required |
| Realising the importance of accurate calculations | Discussing the consequences involved in incorrect calculations |
| Resilience – ability to stick to a task | Supporting learners to stick to the task, even when it becomes challenging by providing a real purpose |
| Number of operations and intermediate steps | Knowing or working out which operation is appropriate e.g. can learners identify the operations necessary to calculate 20% discounts? |
| Flexible thinking | Relating a previous learning experience to the current task ‘I remember when I had to do something like this in…’ |
| Application of inverse operations which require direct operations to be known well | Recognising when working backwards is appropriate. e.g. when bulk buying products, working backwards to calculate how much one item would cost |
