Advantages and Disadvantages of Literacy and Numeracy - Case Study Example

Literacy and Numeracy Introduction Literacy is the act of being able to read, write and think properly about the words in writing. A literate person should be able to understand any form of communication like pictures, body language, speaking, listening and also by observing. Numeracy is the ability to use numbers and mathematics. While numerate is the ability to understand and use numbers. Literacy and numeracy are two related words in the sense that a percentage of the literate people are able to apply the numerical skills too (Latane, 2002). Every person has a capacity to learn depending on the structure and information on the environment. In order to achieve high literacy and numeracy levels the teachers should have detailed knowledge literacy systems and numeracy achievements. For people who use several different languages, the learners have to be equipped with higher skills. To get wider understanding of literacy and numeracy, I conducted a research in a technology school, it was an information technology class and the teacher was Mr. Smith. The class had twenty students and all had the ambition of learning more about the technology. The college is in one of the developing countries in Africa. Following earlier arrangement with Mr. Smith I had a chance to attend two lessons. The students had enrolled for the programming lessons and their main aim is to get knowledge on how certain codes can be applied in communication through the computer system. The college uses the 8-4-4 system of education. Aims and objectives To find out how different individuals apply their knowledge in tackling the numerical issues? How teachers are able to meet the student’s demands? What are the advantages and disadvantages of literacy and numeracy? How the teachers equip the students with the necessary knowledge? What challenges do the teachers and the students face? Measures taken to overcome the setbacks? Literature Review Numeracy and pedagogy are two related words. Pedagogy is just teaching, use of styles and instructions to pass a message. Numerical theory is a branch of mathematics that deals with the study of integers. Integers can be used as equation solution or by themselves. Most of the academic curriculums have put emphasis on numerical learning other than just mathematics. The 8-4-4 system I did my case study on had put lot of skills and knowledge to achieve numerical learning. The shift has caused the teachers to extend their mathematical knowledge to include the pedagogical content. This equips the teacher with the knowledge on how to teach the subject, understand the curriculum and resources of how students should learn. The learning of students is largely influenced by the teacher’s beliefs, knowledge and practices. Before the lesson the teacher had some things put in place in order to achieve his goals (Latane, 2002). These include: 1. preparing the teaching materials 2. keeping of proper recordings and also 3. Setting up programs that suits student’s abilities and needs. During my interaction with the students I discovered that each student had set his/ her own goal and were familiar with the set up teaching program. Numeracy is the foundation of mathematics while the language, skills, and functions of mathematics are required for students to make sense of, and critically evaluate, the contexts in which mathematics is embedded. The socio-cultural and critical aspects of knowledge construction enable the selection of appropriate mathematical tools and informed critique of both mathematics and society. The review of literature resulted in the development of numeracy view in five ways as foundational, affective, Psychological, critical and social cultural. The foundation deals with the understanding of mathematics and use mathematical concepts and skills in relation to number space, data algebra and pattern. Mr. Smith expressed numeracy in a broader perspective than just mathematics as in numeracy is the aspect of applying all the mathematical knowledge and ideas. He expressed by using examples and playing with integers on the board. Affective is the attitude, confidence and ability to use mathematical understanding, the will to choose new mathematics and its context without minding the risks involved. Smith in his numeracy pedagogy had to identify the impact of both negative and positive attitude towards learning of mathematics. He had to put mathematics as part and parcel of his life so that the students could embrace him and accept mathematics in their daily life too. Psychological is basically the reasoning, general thinking on mathematical strategies that support problem solving, identify, explain, question and justify any mathematical approach in relation to a given context. Smith allowed students to play with numbers by applying their ideas so as to make mathematics look real and enjoyable. Any student’s idea could be used as an example and this allowed students to express themselves in many ways and also assisted Mr Smith in discovering the weak points where students needed assistance. Social cultural is the ability to understand the impacts of context in mathematics, be able to apply the correct mathematical tools for sense-making in a given context in relation to people lives and schools in issues concerning public and social in connection to culture and history. Smith had to show that mathematics is meaningful in relation to the real world. This made him come up with a program called “computerized cloth-line”. This was a program in which some mathematical codes were fed to a computer and the computer could command the cloth-line to start pulling clothes inside a shelter when the first drop of rain fell. This brought real meaning of mathematics to students as they could see it being demonstrated and the concept can be applied in daily life where someone has to be there physically to pick clothes when it rains. While Critical is the ability to make mathematics equitable to everyone. If mathematics is used inappropriately it can cause bias which can promote inequities in a society. Equity can be achieved by questioning assumptions and mathematical application to analyze critically in order to make proper decisions and resolve problems. This was achieved by ensuring that every student engages in the class activities equitably and the resources are accessible to everyone. Any kind of mathematical problem was tackled by anybody and anybody’s idea was highly valued so as to encourage equitability among the students (Shulman, 1987). Knowledge and teaching In this study my main aim was to gain an insight into teacher beliefs and practices with the latest curriculum reforms, views concerning the lace of numeracy and Mr Smiths planning, teaching and assessment practices. The teacher Mr. Smith during his higher learning abroad had a chance to attend a program called be numerate which gathered several teachers across the globe and with his expertise after going back to his country he was determined to change his environment by numeracy teaching. His main aim was to teach how mathematics can be applied in programming and make life easy. Smith was a full time teacher and taught two months numeracy unit on programming. Having studied abroad, Smith was determined to bring the high technology he experienced abroad back home and since two heads are better than one he had to share his experience. Many of the students wondered how mathematics can be technologically applied to perform a specific task to an extent of replacing a computer with human being. The lesson started as early as 8.00am and it lasted for 1hr. During the first twenty minutes the teacher dedicated his time in explaining theoretically how mathematics can be used in programming and performs tasks. He used different codes that made a program that when coded to the computer would perform the task. In the next twenty minutes the students were divided in groups of five students and each group assigned a computer. As earlier discussed in the previous twenty minutes the students were asked to practice what was done theoretically. For the last twenty minutes it was the teacher’s duty to go round the classroom accessing what each group had done, assist and rectify where necessary. At this point it was easy to tell the quick learners and the slow students (Zevenbergen & Lerman, 2006). The second lesson was to be held the next day at 10:00 am. Before the second lesson he gave an assignment each student was required to come up with a program that could perform a different task in relation to Mr. Smith’s example. Following day by 9:00am I was in the classroom and was interacting with the students some students were doing the final touches of the assignment as others struggled to make ends meet. It was 10.00am and Mr Smith was in. To start with each student was asked to explain theoretically what his/her program was about. After everyone explained it was time to show it individually and practically via the computer. 98% of the students did it well, 1% had not completed due to one reason or the other while 1% had nothing good to present since they had not understood the concept well. Observation During the lesson i discovered that the teacher was well equipped with the knowledge and the teaching materials. The school also had well equipped library that provided reading materials. I can also say that the curriculum was well organized because such lessons need clear minds when the students are not exhausted after doing other activities in the day. All the lessons were programmed to start in the morning hours. I can give Mr. Smith credit in the sense that he thought wisely by grouping the students first. This assisted greatly in two ways; first it avoided wastage of time since the computers were not enough to accommodate each and every student. Secondly it assisted the students who take time to understand things as they were mixed. During theoretical teaching the teacher could explain everything by writing the codes on the black board. This ensured that every student got the access to the information. By doing it practically via the computer it assisted the students in seeing things literary. In addition it brought curiosity because it seemed like magic and everyone wanted to learn how this magic works. The example of his program used mathematical codes to compute students marks for a certain school and by just the use of codes could do lot of formatting like applying colors, change font, etc. To ensure that proper learning was in progress and every student was participating, Mr. Smith came up with the individual assignment. It’s by this assignment that we discovered that 98% were on the right track, 1% was towards the track but couldn’t achieve mostly due to the limited resources. The other 1% couldn’t achieve anything and the problem was mostly due to cultural influence hence the teacher had to put much emphasis on the 2% to ensure that they are in the same phase with the others (Brown, Rhodes, William & Johnson, 1997). Implications for Numeracy Teaching During my research I had a chance to interact with the teacher as well as the students. As interacted and interviewed them I discovered that the 98% which was on the right track was mostly due to optimism and commitment. Most of the students were ambitious to learn and believed that mathematics is the key to everything. Due to limited resources some had to go an extra mile by sneaking in other classrooms to get access to computers, others had to work overnight since that time most computers were lying idle. I interviewed a student among the 1% that didn’t complete the assignment and the response was that “Every time all the computers were occupied” but my question was “why were you not among the occupants?” “If others made it why not you?” I viewed it as lack of commitment and sign of laziness. This means they could have done better than that since they understood the concept. The greatest challenge lied on the 1% which was like on a joy ride. This caused me to have an interview with the teacher as to why it happened and the measures he was to undertake to assist the students. During the interview I discovered that the 1% came about due to cultural influence and attitude towards mathematics. Most of the students in the group were female and came almost from the same community. I interviewed one student and her response was “Mathematics is difficult and meant for male gender” It seemed that they had lost hope in mathematics and believed in themselves that no matter what they can never make it. Since I believe education and specifically mathematics has o gender, I had to take my time to try explaining to the students how it is real for anybody to be wherever he/she wants depending on what in his/her mind. I believe mathematics is the foundation for education since it is applied everywhere locally and internationally. Even the uneducated use mathematics in one way or another and it is our attitude that enables to achieve goals no matter how hard they might seem to be ( Skalicky, 2007). Conclusion Mr. Smith being a well qualified teacher, had laid down strategies on how to overcome the odds in learning mathematics. His main objective was to equip his students with positive minds towards mathematics and also encourage students by using and sharing their strategies for solving a problem and understand the mathematical concepts. Smith has to organize workshops on gender equality so as to change the negative attitude towards mathematics. During the workshops he had to invite ladies who had achieved great in mathematics, Technology and mathematical related careers like engineering. This brought positive attitude towards mathematics and life in general. In some cases Smith had to use literature to make mathematics understandable by using English words to explain and express some words. He had also to avail himself whenever possible out of class to assist students who were ready to be assisted. Also he had to communicate with the school administration so that the resources can be made available and accessible to every student. In relation to Mr. Smith way of teaching and approach to challenges, I believe everything is possible with commitment and positive attitude. With the effort from the teachers, learners and the community there is hope that numeracy can help mathematics educators, teachers and learners to improve in teaching and learning numeracy. I also learnt that with numeracy and mathematical pedagogy we can transform the world to a better place to be. The government and also institutions have to play a key role in ensuring the required resources are available. Many teachers would like to go for higher learning but can’t afford due to cost, the institutions should assist the teachers in achieving such a goal because after learning they will be back to share with the learners. Mr. Smith was able to achieve all this because he had the opportunity to higher level education. The community should also encourage gender equality so that everyone feels superior to achieve any goal (Clarke, & Clarke, 2002). References Brown, M., Rhodes V.,William, D., & Johnson, D. (1997). Effective teachers of numeracy Clarke, D., & Clarke, B. (2002). Challenging and effective teaching in junior primary mathematics  D. Mumford,(2010) Mathematics in India Glover, D., & Miller, D. (2001). Running with Technology: the pedagogic impact of the large- scale Glover, D., & Miller, D. (2002). The Interactive Whiteboard as a Force for Pedagogic Change Gore, J., M., Griffiths, T., & Ladwig, J., G. . (2004). towards better teaching Jones, S., & Tanner, H. (2002). Teachers' interpretations of effective whole-class interactive teaching in secondary mathematics classrooms. Latane, B. (2002). Focused interactive learnin:. Teaching of Psychology Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching Skalicky, J. (2007). Exploring teachers’ numeracy pedagogies Zevenbergen, R., & Lerman, S. (2006). Numeracy, equity and ICTs: Read More