Hi all,

Esther's comments and questions below tie in to David's first question about
the interaction of the three components that we describe in the paper.

	The little book (published in 2001) is available online at
http://www.maa.org/ql/mathanddemocracy.html  Esther's first question was
whether the quantitative literacy that it refers to is the same as what we
are calling numeracy.  I think that they are; in fact, many of the authors
use the word "numeracy" interchangeably with "quantitative literacy."
Looking at the lists of elements, expressions, and skills that describe
quantitative literacy in the book (pages 6-17), you will see that they are
similar to the tasks that we included as illustrations in our paper. They
start with the primacy of context, and follow with examples from various
contexts that require particular content knowledge and cognitive abilities.

	One of their examples is: Understanding the effects of compound
interest. It starts with a situation that is part of our lives (say, a
decision about saving), requires knowledge of how an exponential function
behaves (increasing slowly at first but rapidly later) and the inclination
and problem solving ability to apply the concept to the situation.  On page
29 of our paper we say that all three components are intertwined, always in
play during a numeracy activity.    

	Esther also asks about the implications that this idea of numeracy
has for pedagogy. "Is the call for numeracy in adult education a call for a
different pedagogy?" "Do you think that the pedagogy for adult numeracy
should change and if so, how?" 

The call for numeracy instruction certainly involves a call for a change in
pedagogy.  In our paper, we focused on identifying the fundamental elements
of numeracy but did discuss some implications for practice on pages 29-31.
What are your reactions to them?

Myrna 



-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of eleonelli at bfit.edu
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 10:15 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 657] Re: The Components of Numeracy study

My question (or comment) has three parts:

(1)	Is adult numeracy the same as quantitative literacy as described in
"Mathematics and Democracy: The case for Quantitative Literacy"?

(2)	If it is, could you comment on the idea that the ABE curriculum and
pedagogy must change as suggested by Larry Cuban in his article,
"Encouraging Progressive Pedagogy,"  in the same text. He states:.[the]
call for numeracy is a call for a different, more salient pedagogy than
now exists.  (page 91)

(3)	Even if numeracy and quantitative literacy are not exactly the same,
do you think that the pedagogy for adult numeracy should change and if so,
how?

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