What Do Teachers Need To Effectively Teach Students With Numeracy?

Numeracy Essay
What do teachers need to understand, know, and be able to do in order to effectively teach students with numeracy difficulties?
Introduction:
This essay will explore the 3 questions posed by many professionals when faced with educating students with numeracy difficulties. What do I, as a teacher need to understand, know and able to do to effectively teach students that struggle? This is answered through extensive research based evidence and academic enquiry looking into guidelines set out by best practice.
As educators of students with a range of abilities, teachers realise the enormity of their role, to cater for, instruct and guide all students within the classroom. While there will always be students who need remedial and

Teachers’ need to be able to effectively teach students with numeracy difficulties math’s proficiency which consists of both conceptual and procedural knowledge. The recent focus on conceptual understanding has been supported by both constructivist teaching approaches and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000)” believe that developing conceptual understanding is one of the primary goals of mathematics instruction” (as cited in Miller and Hudson,2006 p.29).
Students that have conceptual knowledge are able to understand the meaning of abstract symbols and operations of mathematical implementation and apply concepts to solve problems in everyday life. (Miller & Hudson). Research by Doabler & Fein (2013) indicates that many students with numeracy difficulties face difficulties in building conceptual understanding. To remedy and promote proficiency, conceptual understanding, retention and conceptual connections of mathematics the following implementations have been advised:

Teachers need to be able to provide explicit instruction about what the lesson is about, why is it important and how it links to previous learning. Scaffolding the lesson into components that include a guided demonstration by the teacher, followed by guided student practice, that slowly removes teacher support and leads to independent practice. (Miller & Hudson

An understanding that numeracy difficulties can be the result of curriculum, teaching factors and misunderstandings that result in numeracy hurdles. Teachers who have a clear understanding of their own abilities to numerate, recognise that their perspective and proficiency have indications for their student’s, with a capacity to approach student’s difficulties and problems with an expansive repertoire of skills, planning and instruction approaches.

The second guideline is knowing the student, having an understanding of their thinking and abilities through informal and formal contexts. What this means for teachers is getting a holistic picture of the student through accurate information obtained from a variety of assessments. Curriculum knowledge and choosing real and meaningful experiences for students that encourage cross curriculum overlap and adequate time to gain competency. Lastly, sound pedagogical expertise of learning trajectories to eliminate, common traps and correct errors so that the progress of the student is engaging and