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28/08/15
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Numeracy research: Perspec/ves from near and far
Centenary Professor Tom Lowrie 2015 CMA Conference: Think Global: ACT Local 22 August 2015
Trends in Australian students’ mathemaBcs
• Australian middle-‐school students’ content knowledge performance has declined in past 10 years, from a high internaBonal standing.
• Performance of students from other countries (including UK and US) have increased. These countries now have similar performance measures.
* Australia sta+s+cally different from UK & US
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1995 1999 2003 2007 2011
TIMSS 1995-‐2011: Mathema/cs Achievement
(average scale score)
ACT
Australia
United States
UK (England)
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Trends in Australian students’ mathemaBcs
• Australian students’ mathemaBcal literacy performance has also decreased, from an earlier high standing.
• Is this a Western phenomena?
* Australia sta+s+cally different from UK & US ^ Australia sta+s+cally different from UK or US
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2000 2003 2006 2009 2012
PISA 2000-‐2012: Mathema/cs Literacy
(mean score)
ACT
Australia
United States
UK
Be careful what you wish for… • English = Literacy • MathemaBcs ≠ Numeracy • Community percepBon ma^ers • Assessment pracBces have heightened perceived relaBonships
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Declines in mathemaBcs student performance
• In part, due to disBnct performance cohort differences • Males > females:
• = 4 months of a school year • > 6 months for spaBal reasoning tasks
• AccounBng for SES, school locaBon and sector ma^er: • Independent > catholic > state • Metropolitan > regional > remote • Gap between highest and lowest quarBles = 28 months of schooling
ImplicaBons for our region? • To some degree our region is more homogeneous than Australia more broadly
• The out-‐of-‐field discipline challenges appears to be less problemaBc?
• Board of Senior Secondary Studies (BSSS) Review
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Decline in mathemaBcs teacher standards?
• PercepBon: Recent cohorts of teachers have lower levels of mathemaBcs content knowledge (MCK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) than past cohorts.
Mostly anecdotal or causal
Decline in mathemaBcs teacher standards?
• Moderate posiBve correlaBon MCK-‐PCK
• Primary teachers > secondary teachers
• Engineer PCK ≈ pre-‐service PCK
9.42
4.67 4.94 4.95
6.34 6.16 7.00
6.42
7.76 6.96
7.93 7.54
Mean MCK score Mean PCK score
Engineer Pre-‐service teacher Teacher ≤ 5yrs pracBce
Teacher 6 -‐ 15yrs pracBce Teacher 16 -‐ 25yrs pracBce Teacher 26+ yrs pracBce
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Numeracy: The ‘new’ standard?
• Are teachers with higher PCK more effecBve teachers of numeracy?
• Pre-‐service teachers who have studied more advanced levels of mathemaBcs do not posses different beliefs or aitude constructs than those teachers who studied more basic courses.
• Today’s teachers (and indeed their students) may need to possess different mathemaBcs tools than in the past.
The Rise and Rise of Numeracy • Curriculum breadth might be a good thing? • However, challenges with out-‐of-‐field teaching are increased with curriculum breadth
• Superficial treatment of content could widespread
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The Rise and Rise of Numeracy • Can numeracy be considered an applicaBon of mathemaBcs knowledge?
• At least some of the numeracy general capabiliBes are difficult to teach and promote (if given the sophisBcaBon it required)
Using spa+al reasoning
Using SpaBal Reasoning • …in mathemaBcs [spaBal visualisaBon; spaBal orientaBon; spaBal rotaBon]
• …in the arts numeracy general capability examples include:
• decide where to place actors in a performance space
• explore concepts such as space, proporBon and repeBBon in visual arts
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PerspecBves from near • How do we ensure that mathemaBcs is strong in our region?
• To what extent does numeracy really ma^er? • Can we reach a point where all students do mathemaBcs at a deep level in our region?
