The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education
Journal Article
2017-10-31
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Authors
Journal Title
Pythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pythagoras
Publisher
University of Cape Town
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Abstract
There is an articulation gap for many students between the literacy practices developed at
school and those demanded by higher education. While the school sector is often well attuned
to the school-leaving assessments, it may not be as aware of the implicit quantitative literacy
(QL) demands placed on students in higher education. The National Benchmark Test (NBT) in
QL provides diagnostic information to inform teaching and learning. The performance of a
large sample of school-leavers who wrote the NBT QL test was investigated (1) to demonstrate
how school-leavers performed on this QL test, (2) to explore the relationship between
performance on this test and on cognate school-leaving subjects and (3) to provide school
teachers and curriculum advisors with a sense of the QL demands made on their students.
Descriptive statistics were used to describe performance and linear regression to explore the
relationships between performance in the NBT QL test and on the school subjects Mathematics
and Mathematical Literacy. Only 13% of the NBT QL scores in the sample were classified as
proficient and the majority of school-leavers would need support to cope with the QL demands
of higher education. The results in neither Mathematics nor Mathematical Literacy were good
predictors of performance on the NBT QL test. Examination of performance on selected
individual items revealed that many students have difficulty with quantitative language and
with interpreting data in tables. Given that QL is bound to context, it is important that teachers
develop QL practices within their disciplinary contexts.
Description
Reference:
PRINCE, R., FRITH, V.. The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education. Pythagoras, 38, oct. 2017. Available at: http://www.pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras/article/view/355.