[Numeracy 287] Re: What is numeracy?

Archived Content Disclaimer

Please note: This page contains archived content from the lincs.ed.gov e-mail discussion list system, which was disabled in 2012. The content on this page is available for archival purposes only. Hyperlinks on this page may be broken or may no longer link to the content specified from within the archive posting. In addition, information displayed on this page may no longer be relevant.

Michael Gyori tesolmichael at yahoo.com
Sun Apr 4 14:58:19 EDT 2010

Hello Melissa and everyone,

In fact, there are so many "literacies" that its original meaning, the ability especially to read, has evolved into a plethora of skills that are associated with the ability to be successful (in the eyes of the beholder and by no means restricted to financial well-being).  Think of financial literacy, health literacy, social literacy, workplace literacy, parental literacy, interpersonal literacy, and legal literacy, just to name a few.

I regard the state of being literate (or numerate in this case) of having the requisite skills to accomplish and master the demands of particular life domains. The necessary skills vary from person to person, depending upon what an individual human being needs or would like to be able to do in face of the life circumstances he or she needs to maneuver.

In that respect, numeracy still begs to be operationally defined.  For example, in the case of vectors previously mentioned, when and why would one need to understand them?

I believe it is important to know what and why we attempt to successfully teach given the characteristics, goals, and desired life outcomes of those we work with.  That is what led me to ask what we meant, for example, by being "numerate."

Michael 
 
Michael A. Gyori
Maui International Language School 
www.mauilanguage.com




________________________________
From: "melissakeith at verizon.net" <melissakeith at verizon.net>
To: numeracy at nifl.gov
Sent: Sat, April 3, 2010 9:40:31 AM
Subject: [Numeracy 285] Re: What is numeracy?

Hi everyone. This is my first time posting here, but I  have been lurking for some time.  I'm in the process of developing an online numeracy course for adult education teachers.  One analogy that I've heard (I can't remember who to credit this to), and used many times to help teachers understand numeracy is:  Reading is to Literacy as Math is to Numeracy. 
Melissa


On Apr 3, 2010, Michael Gyori <tesolmichael at yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all,

>It just struck me: how might we define being "numerate," one of the multiple literacies?

>Michael

> 

>Michael A. Gyori

>Maui International Language School 

>www.mauilanguage.com

>

>________________________________



>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Math & Numeracy discussion list

>Numeracy at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/numeracy

>Email delivered to melissakeith at verizon.net

>




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lincs.ed.gov/pipermail/numeracy/attachments/20100404/f363a0fb/attachment.html