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The Pros And Cons Of Numeracy

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Most parents want their kids to grow up and be successful in life and to do that they need to be properly educated so they can achieve their goals in life. No matter what someone chooses to do in life, they will have to deal with numbers at some point. Numeracy is the ability to understand and work with numbers. School curriculums are frequently updated and expect students to know higher level mathematics at younger ages. With the increase in difficult mathematics that are being taught to students, it is hard for many students to keep up because “According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress more than 60 percent of the 4th and 8th graders’ mathematics scores in 2011 were deemed at a basic or below basic level of proficiency” …show more content…

If we don't do anything to identify students who are struggling and have difficulties, then it will play a part in their education for the rest of their academic careers and potentially their lives outside of academics such as in their careers and/or personal life. Currently, there are a few ways to see if children and students are struggling with mathematics and numeracy. These methods include, screenings, tests, activities that test mathematical knowledge or a combination of them. The most easiest method to administrate, but not always the most reliable method is testing (Jordan et al. 182). Testing is where students simply take a test with varying levels of mathematical problems and then using the score of their test to predict on their future abilities (Jordan et al. 182) . These tests are often the easiest to administer because they are usually administered by the state once a year to determine the standings of the states school curriculum. Both studies by Amanda VanDerHayden, a private consultant and researcher, author …show more content…

Minna Kyttälä, a Finnish professor at the University of Turku, feels if intervention is placed on students to increase their working memory, then it would help increase numeracy skills along with other skills. Working memory is the concept of short term memory and the portion of the brain that is used to to high speed calculations of formulas and equations (Kyttälä 363). Kyttälä, in her study, says that there “did not show significant time x intervention interaction. This means that the change in the Working Memory performance did not differ statistically” (Kyttälä 367). Jordan, has the idea that research indicates the importance of implementing numeracy skills early for setting children’s learning trajectories in mathematics throughout elementary school (Jordan et al. 183). Mido Chang, part of the Department of Leadership & Professional Studies at Florida International University, and his colleagues believe that the use of a learning game can enhance a student learning with numeracy and fractions (Chang et al. 45). In Chang’s study, 306 students, from sixth grade to eighth grade, from two schools in rural southwest Virginia participated in the study. The concept behind this is the

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His parents could require him to work out five word problems, with a goal that he work out four out of five (80%) correctly before moving on to higher level problems. As his math and applied problem fluency increases, the problems could be harder and the number of problems per session can be increased (7, 8, 9, 10 word problems per sheet). The focus can still be on 80% of the problems correct even as the difficulty and quantity of problems increase. This is based on “Standard - CC.2.1.4.B.2 Using place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic” and “Standard - CC.2.1.5.B.2 extending an understanding of operations with whole numbers to perform operations including

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It also proves that an activity can be fun while integrating multiple skills and several levels concept knowledge. This activity not only helps students with their fraction multiplication and division skills but also reiterates vocabulary (numerator, denominator, etc.) and gets at the basics of understanding what fractions actually mean. By making the game into something of an activity where students are trying to get the largest (or smallest) number, they need to understand that where they place their drawn cards can greatly impact their final number. The greatest benefit of this activity, and many that I came across, was the opportunity it provided students to solve problems and work together. This, to me, makes a huge difference when engaging students and making learning fun.

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“One thing is certain: The human brain has serious problems with calculations. Nothing in its evolution prepared it for the task of memorizing dozens of multiplication facts or for carrying out the multistep operations required for two-digit subtraction.” (Sousa, 2015, p. 35). It is amazing the things that our brain can do and how our brain adapt to perform these kind of calculations. As teachers, we need to take into account that our brain is not ready for calculations, but it can recognize patterns.

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My research will study the impact of coding on the ability of fourth graders to recall multiplication facts. The question I will answer is, How does Scratch code impact multiplication fact automaticity in fourth grade math students? I will determine whether the use of Scratch coding can increase the ability of fourth grade students to recall basic multiplication facts within a specific time period. To do so I will have students complete a timed assessment of 50 basic multiplication facts between 0 and 9. I will also study student comfort levels with learning math, and in particular recalling multiplication facts.

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From studying education, I have noticed how many school districts teach based upon what the students will be tested over. As a future educator, I feel as if a standardized test cannot determine what a student is capable of. The individuals creating the test often don’t realize that many students suffer from test anxiety, in fear of failing the test and what is more fearful is how the school districts pressure the teachers to stress to the students the importance of passing the test. Also, in this chapter Boaler describes assessment for learning as having three components clear communication about what students have learned, a way to help students understand where they are on their journey to mastery and where they still need to improve, and information on ways to get from where students are currently to where they need to be to meet success criteria. This chapter offered several strategies that will help students have a better grasp of where they are in the learning process and that will help them develop and maintain a growth mindset.

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Introduction This essay aims to report on how an educator’s mathematical content knowledge and skills could impact on the development of children’s understanding about the pattern. The Early Years Framework for Australia (EYLF) defines numeracy as young children’s capacity, confidence and disposition in mathematics, and the use of mathematics in their daily life (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), 2009, p.38). It is imperative for children to have an understanding of pattern to develop mathematical concepts and early algebraic thinking, combined with reasoning (Knaus, 2013, p.22). The pattern is explained by Macmillan (as cited in Knaus, 2013, p.22) as the search for order that may have a repetition in arrangement of object spaces, numbers and design.

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Common Core is the federal government’s largest attempt to establish nationwide educational standards for all students in all grade levels in the subjects of reading and math. Proponents of Common Core argue that the standards ensure that students are ready for college or career success upon high school graduation. The standards can also serve as a diagnostic tool to gauge the academic standing of individual students, schools and districts. Resources can be better allocated towards individuals and schools that may be underperforming. Progress can be measured by assessing the extent to which individuals and schools meet the standards.

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Subitizing is the ability to recognise amounts quickly such as fingers and dots. “Subitizing is a fundamental skill in the development of number sense, supporting the develop of conservation, compensation, unitizing, counting on, composing and decomposing of numbers” (Silva, 2005, p. 5). The ability to group and quantify patterns quickly supports a child development with number sense. In addition, it is necessary to fully comprehend place value in order to perform “algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division” (Reys et al., 2016, ch. 8.2). It is critical that students fully understand the meaning of a number to further develop their mathematics, and to overcome any misconceptions developed along the

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In “Is Your Child Ready For College Math?” the author builds an argument that many students may not be prepared with the mathematics skills to be college or career ready. The author uses reasons such as the fact that students may have taken insufficient mathematics courses; that they may have taken the wrong courses, or that students have not mastered the skills required to be college and/or career ready. The author provides supporting evidence from the text and compelling word choices to strengthen the logic and persuasiveness of his argument.

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Many students are smart and understand the content, but it doesn't show on test scores (Gregory J. Cizek, 2001). In essence, testing brings out stress in even the brightest of students, messing with their heads come test day. The facts show that from the 50 states, 700 school districts claim that standardardized tests are causing greater anxiety than the average everyday assessments (Joseph Spector, 2015). In conclusion, student achievement

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One of the history's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Over the course of years, this statement has only become more relevant. Maybe that is the reason why the topic of the decline of the American education has been recently spurring such a heated debate among national academic and teaching communities. In “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, Carl Singleton, a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, also presented his reflections concerning the U.S. education system.

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There are also much better ways to test a student’s capability to learn; a 2006 Center on Education Policy conducted a study and found that a curriculum that follows state standards and uses the test data as feedback led to higher scores than those that prioritized test-taking skills. When teachers are more focused on teaching material rather than test strategies, their students benefit from it (“Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”). Several alternative methods to state assessments for measuring a student’s academic success include comparing high school graduation rates and the number of dropouts, offering advanced placement courses, and looking at the percentage of the former students that are admitted to colleges. State assessments are more harmful than helpful to students; they are a large cause of test anxiety and a majority of teachers can never fully prepare their students. Although state assessments are an easy way to be able to see the growth of students, that does not mean that they are the best

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These tests begin in the third grade and take place at the end of the school year. Students are tested in English and mathematics and have to use the information and the skills they learned throughout the year. Not only are these tests long and hard they are used as tools for deciding whether or not a student will go to the next grade. This system has many flaws and they do more harm than good. First off, many students are not good test takers and tend to do poorly on them.

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Standardized tests are tests designed to evaluate a student’s performance and as well as the teacher’s performance where these tests contain the same set or common questions which are taken by the students annually in the same way (The Johnson Center, n.d.). However, these tests may also vary depending on which of the student’s or school’s ability would they like to evaluate. Standardized tests are of different forms. There are tests intended to evaluate a student’s learning and academic progress¬—if a student was able to learn what he/she was supposed to learn¬—over a period of time.

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Some students feel like math is a new language. When students fail to work in a math class they may feel scare and try to ran away math as much as possible in the future. Some math teacher doesn’t know the beauty of math. Many students think that they do not need math in future for example some want to be a footballer but they thought they don’t need math of course even football need math like having angles. Some of the students aren’t patience of wronging so they try to avoid math as much as possible.

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