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The Role And Positioning Of Numeracy In Australian Universities - Does It Matter?, Lesley Wilkins

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Numeracy has been problematic for practitioners. It has been difficult to de-termine a consistent definition of the term; moreover, there has never been real agreement on its role, or position, within society, or within higher edu-cation. Many students who find mathematics "challenging", but who need to pass a non-specialist mathematics subject in order to graduate, consult Learning Development lecturers in order to obtain assistance with mathemat-ics. Students present with a variety of difficulties ranging from gaps in their schooling, especially senior school mathematics, through to more fundamen-tal mathematics topics. Many students confess to being "bad at maths"; are openly negative …