The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education

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dc.contributorFrith, Vera
dc.contributor.authorPrince, Robert
dc.coverage.spatialSouth Africaen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2017-11-08T11:52:30Z
dc.date.available2017-11-08T11:52:30Z
dc.date.issued2017-10-31
dc.description.abstractThere 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.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationPrince, R. (2017). The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education. <i>Pythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26059en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationPrince, Robert "The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education." <i>Pythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa</i> (2017) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26059en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationPRINCE, 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>.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1012-2346en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Prince, Robert AB - 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. DA - 2017-10-31 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town J1 - Pythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2017 SM - 1012-2346 T1 - The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education TI - The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26059 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/26059
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationPrince R. The quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher education. Pythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa. 2017; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26059.en_ZA
dc.languageengen_ZA
dc.publisherPythagorasen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en_ZA
dc.sourcePythagoras - Journal of the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africaen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://www.pythagoras.org.za/index.php/pythagoras
dc.titleThe quantitative literacy of South African school-leavers who qualify for higher educationen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsQuantitative Literacyen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsNational Benchmark Testsen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsNBTen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsHigher Educationen_ZA
uct.subject.keywordsBasic Educationen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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