Education Commons^™

Mathematical literacy has received increasing attention in many countries over the last few years. This is partly driven by concerns of employers that too many students leave school unable to function mathematically at the level needed in the modern world of work. Further, it is increasingly recognised that people can only tackle many of the challenges of modern life effectively if they are mathematically literate in key areas. Planning in personal finance, assessment of risk, design in the home or on the computer screen, and critical appraisal of the flood of statistical information from advertising, politicians and the press — …

This chapter illustrates how Applications and Modelling promote the learning of mathematics by developing the student’s mathematical language and her use of tools, and by developing the learner’s capacity to ask and answer questions in, with, and about mathematics.

Several test items from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are now in the public domain. Some of these incorporate elements of modelling. This paper highlights a selection of those items, shows some interesting student outcomes such as gender differences and item difficulty, and poses some questions about the implications of these items for school mathematics.

This paper provides an overview of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an on-going international comparative survey study of educational outcomes at age 15. PISA is sponsored by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and for the period 1998-2010 has been designed and implemented by a consortium led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).