Browsing by Subject "quantitative literacy"
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- ItemOpen AccessQuantitative Literacy as situated social practice in Higher Education(Common Ground Publishing, 2006) Prince, Robert Noel; Archer, Arlene HillaryMathematical literacy' is soon to be introduced as a subject in South African schools. This has generated numerous debates in various educational arenas, such as tertiary institutions and professional bodies. This paper looks at the differences between mathematics and Quantitative Literacy (QL) and examines the implicit QL demands and conventionalized QL practices in Higher Education curricula. Although certain practices are highly valued, they are not necessarily explicitly taught to students, especially those from non-dominant or disadvantaged positions in the power structures of the university and the society. This paper explores ways in which the implicit Quantitative Literacy demands can be made explicit and can be used to provide a rich environment to facilitate mathematical and statistical concept acquisition. We look at conventionalized practices in academic disciplines (focusing our analysis on the use of charts) and propose a number of principles of curriculum design.
- ItemOpen AccessQuantitative Literacy for University students in South Africa(2016) Lloyd, Pam; Frith, Vera; Jaftha, Jacob; Rughubar-Reddy, Sheena; Le Roux, KateThese activities and exercises are most appropriate for Humanities and Law students, but the contexts used should be of interest to any citizen. The mathematical content covered does not include data analysis, statistics and probability. Understanding these topics is essential for quantitative literacy, but are not included here. Thus these materials do not provide the basis of a complete quantitative literacy course, but cover the work of approximately one semester in a first year programme.
- ItemOpen AccessQuantitative literacy interventions at University of Cape Town: effects of seperation from academic disciplines(University of South Florida, 2012) Frith, VeraThe aim of the Numeracy Centre at the University of Cape Town is to develop students' quantitative literacy (QL) in a manner consistent with their programmes of study and intended roles in the community. Our theoretical perspective on the nature of QL is in line with that of the New Literacies Studies and sees academic QL as practices in different academic disciplinary contexts. This means that for us the ideal curriculum structure for developing QL would fully integrate it into the teaching of the disciplines. This is in practice not achievable in most cases, especially since many students do not have the necessary foundations of mathematical and statistical knowledge and skills. The unavoidable deviation from the ideal curriculum structure presents challenges to the design of QL interventions. Two illustrative examples which display different degrees of separation from the disciplinary teaching are described and discussed. This discussion is based on lecturers' reflections on the teaching experience and on student evaluations. The 'stand-alone' QL course for Humanities and Law students, which uses a context-based approach, is the least integrated with the disciplinary curriculum, and presents challenges in terms of tensions in the classroom between the contexts and the mathematical and statistical content, as well as challenges in terms of student motivation. The QL intervention for medical students is more closely integrated into the medical curriculum and presents fewer challenges. Both interventions are intended to provide 'foundations' in terms of QL and suffer from difficulties in providing students with authentic motivation.
- ItemOpen AccessQuantitative literacy of school leavers aspiring to higher education in South Africa(South African Journal of Higher Education, 2016) Prince, Robert; Frith, VeraIt is important for higher education educators to understand the quantitative literacy (QL) competencies of incoming students, in order to make appropriate assumptions about prior knowledge and to design suitable curricula. In this article we analyse the results of a National Benchmark Tests project’s (NBTP) QL test written by a large cohort of prospective applicants to higher education, in order to contribute to this understanding. A large proportion of these candidates were unable to cope with quantitative literacy demands of the kinds commonly encountered in higher education. More than half of candidates need some kind of supplementary QL support and at least 30 per cent require extensive support. Candidates’ performance on subgroups of the QL test items and on individual items provides further insights into particular strengths and weaknesses. The results highlight that opportunities for the development of QL competencies should be found and these should be integrated into disciplinary teaching.
- ItemOpen AccessQuantitative literacy practices in civil engineering study: designs for teaching and learning(Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2016) Prince, Robert; Simpson, ZachHigher education needs to produce increasing numbers of good quality graduates. Included herein is the need for graduates that can engage in high level quantitative literacy practices, which requires designs for learning that understand how texts are constructed through language, images and mathematical notation, which together form the meaning-making repertoire of quantitative literacy. This paper applies a framework for quantitative literacy events in the analysis of a particular graphical procedure used during undergraduate civil engineering courses throughout South Africa. The framework draws on the New Literacies Studies’ view of literacy as social practice and examines the specific practices that students need to engage with during individual quantitative literacy events. Application of the framework demonstrates that such graphical procedures constitute quantitative literacy events in which students engage in various quantitative practices, the implications of which inform designs for learning in civil engineering in several key respects.
- ItemOpen AccessTowards understanding the quantitative literacy demands of a first-year medical curriculum(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2011) Frith, Vera; Gunston, GeneySetting. When designing a medical curriculum, assumptions that are made about students' quantitative literacy (QL) competencies often lead to demands that students are unable to meet. In order to improve the match between the literacy demands of the curriculum and the literacy competencies of students, the demands need to be examined critically and the assumptions made explicit. Curriculum changes that reduce the articulation gap between demands and competencies are particularly important for broadening access and promoting success, in tertiary study, for students with disadvantaged educational backgrounds. Objectives. The objectives of this study are to survey the QL implicitly and explicitly contained in a course curriculum, in a manner that could be useful for the following purposes: raising awareness in health science lecturers of the nature and extent of the QL demands of their course materials, developing the theory relating to best practice for QL development in health sciences and informing the design of QL interventions. Method. We focus on the analysis of the QL competencies required of a student engaging with text-based learning materials in the curriculum of a first-year integrated human biology/epidemiology/biochemistry course. For the analysis we use a framework, which classifies quantitative material according to a mathematical and statistical dimension and a competencies dimension. Results and conclusions. A range of examples is presented which illustrate that the implicit QL demands of this first-year course curriculum are substantial and varied.