Numeracy is more than number: The teaching of mathematics for numeracy

Abstract

In recent years, the term numeracy has been commonly used in reference to school mathematics education, alongside its counterpart literacy. While many teachers appear comfortable differentiating between the curriculum area, English and the term literacy, they are not so clear about the terms mathematics and numeracy. However, the development and conceptualisation of the term numeracy has been an important influence on the teaching of mathematics, after first being attributed to the United Kingdom’s Crowther report in 1959, where numeracy was described as the mirror image of literacy (Tout & Motteram, 2006). Just as the skills associated with reading and writing are taught and discussed in order to enable students to become literate, so too are the key ideas of mathematics taught with understanding, in order to enable students to become numerate.