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Full-Text Articles in Education
Review Of Sustainable Energy -- Without The Hot Air By David Mackay (2009), Kira Hamman
Review Of Sustainable Energy -- Without The Hot Air By David Mackay (2009), Kira Hamman
Numeracy
David MacKay. Sustainable Energy: Without the hot air. (Cambridge, England: UIT Cambridge Ltd., 2009). 384 pp. ISBN 978-0954452933 (also available as a free e-book).
Physicist David MacKay transforms what has historically been a debate fraught with skepticism and hysteria into an informed conversation. He does this by providing clear, accurate quantitative information on energy production and consumption in a form that allows comparison and invites thoughtful analysis. By recalibrating power into kilowatt-hours per day per person, he makes the numbers meaningful on an individual level. He then meticulously estimates the productive capacity of various renewable energy sources, explores alternative …
Quantitative Literacy At Michigan State University, 3: Designing General Education Mathematics Courses, Samuel L. Tunstall, Vincent Melfi, Jeffrey Craig, Richard Edwards, Andrew Krause, Bronlyn Wassink, Victor Piercey
Quantitative Literacy At Michigan State University, 3: Designing General Education Mathematics Courses, Samuel L. Tunstall, Vincent Melfi, Jeffrey Craig, Richard Edwards, Andrew Krause, Bronlyn Wassink, Victor Piercey
Numeracy
In this paper, we describe the process at Michigan State University whereby we have created two courses, Math 101 and 102, designed to foster numeracy and alleviate mathematics anxiety. The courses--which are not sequential--provide a means of satisfying the University's general education requirement without taking college algebra or calculus, among other options. They are context-driven and broken into modules such as "The World and Its People" and "Health and Risk." They have been highly successful thus far, with students providing positive feedback on their interest in the material and the utility they see of it in their daily lives. We …
Words Matter: Discourse And Numeracy, Samuel L. Tunstall
Words Matter: Discourse And Numeracy, Samuel L. Tunstall
Numeracy
Here I discuss elements of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and their importance in relation to quantitative literacy (QL). Through an overview of theory, synthesis of research, and examples, I argue that the discursive nature of textbooks has a nontrivial impact on students' mathematical dispositions - an important component of QL. In particular, texts are a means of disseminating the culture of mathematics, one which has a tendency to paint mathematics as esoteric and male-dominated. Such a characterization has profound implications for the numeracy community, one of which is that we cannot assume that changes in curriculum are sufficient for effecting …
Random Number Simulations Reveal How Random Noise Affects The Measurements And Graphical Portrayals Of Self-Assessed Competency, Edward Nuhfer, Christopher Cogan, Steven Fleisher, Eric Gaze, Karl Wirth
Random Number Simulations Reveal How Random Noise Affects The Measurements And Graphical Portrayals Of Self-Assessed Competency, Edward Nuhfer, Christopher Cogan, Steven Fleisher, Eric Gaze, Karl Wirth
Numeracy
Self-assessment measures of competency are blends of an authentic self-assessment signal that researchers seek to measure and random disorder or "noise" that accompanies that signal. In this study, we use random number simulations to explore how random noise affects critical aspects of self-assessment investigations: reliability, correlation, critical sample size, and the graphical representations of self-assessment data. We show that graphical conventions common in the self-assessment literature introduce artifacts that invite misinterpretation. Troublesome conventions include: (y minus x) vs. (x) scatterplots; (y minus x) vs. (x) column graphs aggregated as quantiles; line …
Investigating Proportional Reasoning In A University Quantitative Literacy Course, Vera Frith, Pam Lloyd
Investigating Proportional Reasoning In A University Quantitative Literacy Course, Vera Frith, Pam Lloyd
Numeracy
The ability to reason with proportions is known to take a long time to develop and to be difficult to learn. We regard proportional reasoning (the ability to reason about quantities in relative terms) as a threshold concept for academic quantitative literacy. Our study of the teaching and learning of proportional reasoning in a university quantitative literacy course for law students consisted of iterative action research, in which we introduced various teaching interventions and analysed students’ written responses to assessment questions requiring students to explain their reasoning in situations that call for proportional reasoning. For this analysis we used a …
What's In A Name? A Critical Review Of Definitions Of Quantitative Literacy, Numeracy, And Quantitative Reasoning, Gizem Karaali, Edwin H. Villafane Hernandez, Jeremy A. Taylor
What's In A Name? A Critical Review Of Definitions Of Quantitative Literacy, Numeracy, And Quantitative Reasoning, Gizem Karaali, Edwin H. Villafane Hernandez, Jeremy A. Taylor
Numeracy
This article aims to bring together various threads in the eclectic literature that make up the scholarship around the theme of Quantitative Literacy. In investigating the meanings of terms like "quantitative literacy," "quantitative reasoning," and "numeracy," we seek common ground, common themes, common goals and aspirations of a community of practitioners. A decade ago, these terms were relatively new in the public sphere; today policy makers and accrediting agencies are routinely inserting them into general education conversations. Having good, representative, and perhaps even compact and easily digestible definitions of these terms might come in handy in public relations contexts as …