Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Publication Type
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Education
Parts Of The Whole: Strategies For The Spread Of Quantitative Literacy: What Models Can Tell Us, Dorothy Wallace
Parts Of The Whole: Strategies For The Spread Of Quantitative Literacy: What Models Can Tell Us, Dorothy Wallace
Numeracy
Two conceptual frameworks, one from graph theory and one from dynamical systems, have been offered as explanations for complex phenomena in biology and also as possible models for the spread of ideas. The two models are based on different assumptions and thus predict quite different outcomes for the fate of either biological species or ideas. We argue that, depending on the culture in which they exist, one can identify which model is more likely to reflect the survival of two competing ideas. Based on this argument we suggest how two strategies for embedding and normalizing quantitative literacy in a given …
Quantitative Reasoning Learning Progression: The Matrix, Robert L. Mayes, Jennifer Forrester, Jennifer Schuttlefield Christus, Franziska Peterson, Rachel Walker
Quantitative Reasoning Learning Progression: The Matrix, Robert L. Mayes, Jennifer Forrester, Jennifer Schuttlefield Christus, Franziska Peterson, Rachel Walker
Numeracy
The NSF Pathways Project studied the development of environmental literacy in students from grades six through high school. Learning progressions for environmental literacy were developed to explicate the trajectory of learning. The Pathways QR research team supported this effort by studying the role of quantitative reasoning (QR) as a support or barrier to developing environmental literacy. An iterative research methodology was employed which included targeted student interviews to establish QR learning progression progress variables and elements comprising those progress variables, development of a QR learning progression framework, and closed-form QR assessments to verify the progression. In this paper the focus …
Looking At The Multiple Meanings Of Numeracy, Quantitative Literacy, And Quantitative Reasoning, H. L. Vacher
Looking At The Multiple Meanings Of Numeracy, Quantitative Literacy, And Quantitative Reasoning, H. L. Vacher
Numeracy
The subject of this journal goes by a variety of names: numeracy, quantitative literacy, and quantitative reasoning. Some authors use the terms interchangeably. Others see distinctions between them. Study of psycholinguistic and ontological concepts laid out in the literature of WordNet and familiarity with the papers in this journal suggests a vocabulary matrix consisting of four rows (word senses) and three columns (word forms, namely numeracy, QL, and QR). The four word senses correspond to four sets of synonyms: {numeracy}, {numeracy, QL}, {QL, QR}, and {numeracy, QL, QR}. Each of the word forms is polysemous: “numeracy” points to the first, …
Complex Adaptive Systems And Quantitative Reasoning In An Interdisciplinary Stem Mathematics Classroom, Robert L. Mayes, Kania Greer
Complex Adaptive Systems And Quantitative Reasoning In An Interdisciplinary Stem Mathematics Classroom, Robert L. Mayes, Kania Greer
Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching & Learning Conference (2012-2019)
In this presentation we will share outcomes from the Real STEM project, which provides professional development for rural teachers in the Georgia Coastal Plains supporting implementation of interdisciplinary STEM courses as well as STEM modules in mathematics and science courses. Real STEM includes a number of innovative student-active strategies for teaching including: Understanding by Design (UbD) approaches to teaching for understanding, problem-based learning (PBL), place-based education (PBE), complex adaptive systems (CAS) thinking, and quantitative reasoning (QR). QR is the mathematical underpinning of the projects. The projects are ongoing so we will report our results on impact on teacher practice and …
Parts Of The Whole: Only Connect, Dorothy Wallace
Parts Of The Whole: Only Connect, Dorothy Wallace
Numeracy
This is the first of several columns that will focus on the mechanisms by which new ideas become accepted by a culture, offering some familiar examples, deriving basic principles from these examples, and applying them to the problem of promoting quantitative literacy in an educational system. In this essay we describe how new concepts become embedded in a culture through their connections to existing ideas, and use this principle to suggest strategies of discourse about numeracy that promote it among various constituencies in the culture.
Teaching Quantitative Reasoning: A Better Context For Algebra, Eric Gaze
Teaching Quantitative Reasoning: A Better Context For Algebra, Eric Gaze
Numeracy
This editorial questions the preeminence of algebra in our mathematics curriculum. The GATC (Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus) sequence abandons the fundamental middle school math topics necessary for quantitative literacy, while the standard super-abundance of algebra taught in the abstract fosters math phobia and supports a culturally acceptable stance that math is not relevant to everyday life. Although GATC is seen as a pipeline to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), it is a mistake to think that the objective of producing quantitatively literate citizens is at odds with creating more scientists and engineers. The goal must be to create a curriculum …