Introduction
As an employee of County Community College, I teach an Adult Basic Skills Numeracy class. I originally started the academic year with 18 learners, but by April 2015 I had approximately 6 learners per session. Most learners are female, of Afro-Caribbean or African origin and aged between 20 and 50 years. It has been suggested that many learners see numeracy as a male domain (Cemen, 1987; Gutbezahl, 1995; Levine, 1995; Miller et al, 1994) and I have noticed that I teach predominantly female learners who are particularly shy and have low self esteem. They are also full of self doubt and lack confidence in their mathematical ability and some do not see numeracy as a useful subject when compared to literacy. To some it is just a means to an end and not something to learn for the sake of self-improvement.
Most learners are not in full time employment when they start the course, but as the course proceeds, approximately half of all learners will leave to take a job. The main motivation of learners is to achieve a numeracy qualification and couple this with a literacy qualification and use this as route for entry into the Access to Higher Education programs offered either by County Community College or neighboring colleges. Most of the learners can see the benefit of gaining qualifications as a way of improving their lifestyles by allowing them to have more employment options. The majority of learners have school age children and it has been noted that a lot of the learners want to make a good example for their children in regards to education and employment.
I have chosen two learners to use for a case study of learning difficulties experienced by adult numeracy learners. The learning difficulties that are ...
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...on to the special section. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130 (June): 163
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Bibliography
Cofield, F. et al. 2004. Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review. Learning and Skills Research Centre, London.
It is the tutor’s responsibility to ensure that learners feel comfortable in the learning environment and that they understand the importance of numeracy as a life and work skill and feel motivated and confident in their own abilities to use it. It is tutor’s responsibility to support the learner to achieve the goals they set on their ILP and to inspire them to achieve their full potential. It is the tutor’s role to prepare the learner with the skills needed for a successful life.
Jones, Rebecca. “Solving Problems in Math and Science Education.” The American School Board Journal. 185.7 (1998): 16-20.
Pateman, Neil A., Ed, et al. Proceedings Of The 27Th International Group For The Psychology Of Mathematics Education Conference Held Jointly With The 25Th PME-NA Conference (Honolulu, Hawaii, July 13-18, 2003). Volume 3. n.p.: International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 2003. ERIC. Web. 23 Apr.
The classroom is a diverse place where learners from all different genres of life meet. Included in these learners are those that display learning disabilities. According to the British Columbia School Superintendent’s Association, ‘learning disabilities refer to a number of conditions that might affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information. These disorders affect learning in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning’. They also posit that ‘learning disabilities result from impairments in one or more processes related to perceiving, thinking, remembering or learning. These include, but are not limited to language processing,
Kazu, Ibrahim Yasar. “The Effect of learning styles on education and the teaching process.” Journal of Social Sciences (Apr. 2009): 85. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 July 2011.
The first group of students I observed was two boys. The boys came into class and picked a game for them to play. They decided on playing jenga. They took turns playing the game. After they took a turn, Ms. Robinson would have them do something having to do with the lesson. One boy had to read a story out loud to Ms. Robinson. While he was taking his turn, the other boy was supposed to hold a casual conversation. He struggled with it so Ms. Robinson tried to help him by asking him questions. He still struggled with using elaborate answers. He was not using his r’s so Ms. Robinson eventually just had to ask him to say some words with r’s in them. the boys continued playing the game while also taking turn working on their specific areas of improvement.
Learning Disability is a recognized category under the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) 2004. Students identified as having a Learning Disability after undergoing an Initial Evaluation, are approved for the support of special education services. Under the IDEA all student, regardless of their disability, have the right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in their Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). Learning Disability is a widely used, universal term that describes specific kinds of learning problems that students may have. A learning disability can cause a student to have trouble learning, retaining and using skills in reading, writing, math, and comprehension. (Sillman, Bahr, Beasman & Wilkinson, 2000)
Many seeking education beyond a high school diploma, or GED, are English Language Learners or are returning to school after a long absence due to employment, military service, or other life interruptions (Community Literacy Initiative, 2013; Harper & DeJon, 2004; C. Johnson, 2008; MacIntire, 2015; National Council of Teachers of English [NCTE], 2007; Patterson & Paulson, 2011; Zhang, Guison-Dowdy, Patterson, and Song, 2011). The NTCE found studies found that only 13% of adults can perform complex literacy tasks, that high school graduates’ literacy scores have dropped, and that 8.7 million secondary school students (25%) are unable to understand the material they read in their textbooks (2007). The community surrounding River Community College reports low literacy for 1 in 8 adults (Community Literacy Initiative, 2013). Mulhall (2015) stated that the college had a higher percentage of minority students than the state average, and the NTCE reported a significant achievement gap between “certain racial/ethnic/SES (sic) groups” (2007). This is a significant finding to consider for the River Community College faculty and the departments of student success and
Do I Have to Teach Math? Early Childhood Pre-Service Teachers’ Fears of Teaching Mathematics, is a research article written three researches from Illinois Sate University. Alan B. Bates, Nancy I. Latham, and Jin-ah Kim focused their study on indentifying by pre-service teachers their fears towards mathematics. These researchers also looked for the source of those specific fears as well as for explanation provided by the participants. As “mathematics” is a polarizing word for many people, very often it evokes numerous personal reactions, commonly anxiety reaction. Surprisingly, we are not speaking here only about students, but more importantly about people who teach mathematics. This study indicates that many teachers have fears about teaching
Sherley, B., Clark, M. & Higgins, J. (2008) School readiness: what do teachers expect of children in mathematics on school entry?, in Goos, M., Brown, R. & Makar, K. (eds.) Mathematics education research: navigating: proceedings of the 31st annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia, Brisbane, Qld: MERGA INC., pp.461-465.
While numeracy and mathematics are often linked together in similar concepts, they are very different from one another. Mathematics is often the abstract use of numbers, letters in a functional way. While numeracy is basically the concept of applying mathematics in the real world and identifying when and where we are using mathematics. However, even though they do have differences there can be a similarity found, in the primary school mathematics curriculum (Siemon et al, 2015, p.172). Which are the skills we use to understand our number systems, and how numeracy includes the disposition think mathematically.
Years 14 to 19 are the transition stages of a student from the end of their compulsory study based of the guidelines set by the national curriculum, to other learning styles that aid the pathways to higher education, training, employment and further life long learning. This than allows students to gain the necessar...
Skemp, R (2002). Mathematics in the Primary School. 2nd ed. London: Taylor and Francis .
...S. and Stepelman, J. (2010). Teaching Secondary Mathematics: Techniques and Enrichment Units. 8th Ed. Merrill Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Education is a profession which requires a teacher to be able to communicate with a multitude of students on a variety of levels. There is not a class, or student for that matter, that is identical. Therefore, teachers must be able to identify and help educate students from all different types of backgrounds and at different levels. Teaching a singular subject presents difficulties, but teaching students with disabilities should not be one. There are three main teaching areas that need to be focused on when teaching a student with a learning disability. Teachers need to focus on the strategies that will assist students with reading comprehension skills, writing skills, and maintaining appropriate behaviors in a classroom setting.