Preliminary Investigations of Pre-service Teacher Numeracy

It is essential that pre-service teacher educators address pre-service teacher numeracy butwith careful consideration as it incorporates more than mathematics skills. Numeracy alsoinvolves disposition towards mathematics—attitudes, confidence and mathematics anxiety;that is, the level of willingness...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cooke, Audrey
Other Authors: Judy Anderson
Format: Conference Paper
Published: MEGRA Inc 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/11512
Description
Summary:It is essential that pre-service teacher educators address pre-service teacher numeracy butwith careful consideration as it incorporates more than mathematics skills. Numeracy alsoinvolves disposition towards mathematics—attitudes, confidence and mathematics anxiety;that is, the level of willingness to use mathematics skills. As part of an emphasis ondeveloping pre-service teacher numeracy, a new first year unit was introduced. Pre-serviceteachers were given tools to investigate their competence, attitudes towards, confidencewith, and anxiety regarding mathematics. This paper outlines the changes that wereidentified in the numeracy of these pre-service teachers at the completion of the unit.