The Pros And Cons Of Numeracy

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”

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

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