Reflecting and drawing upon the experiences of a practitioner teaching and supporting students who struggle with the basics of numeracy in a range of settings in post-16 education, Methods-based Numeracy focuses on areas of difficulty that many of these students face.
For each area of difficulty, the book introduces the student to what the author believes to be effective and efficient methods that they have either struggled with previously or have not encountered.
The methods are particularly pertinent for those who have come through the education system, and are still struggling with what should be straightforward methods and, as a result have returned to learning in one of a range of settings including FE colleges, Adult and Community Learning, and Work-based learning etc. in order to achieve a Functional Skills or GCSE maths qualification.
Methods-based Numeracy has twenty-five chapters (in the form of methods worksheets) and for each, methods are illustrated through worked examples, followed by the opportunity for students to practise using the methods in a range of questions that include contextualised examples that could occur in Functional Skills or GCSE maths papers.
As well as highlighting a range of methods and providing learners with the opportunity to practise those methods, the purpose of the worksheets (within each chapter) is also to give learners the opportunity to familiarise themselves with some of the underpinning knowledge (along with a suitable method) they require in order to solve problems. Examples of such knowledge include: formulae for calculating the perimeter, area and volume of shapes; formulae for calculating mean and range of a set of data; interpretation of line graphs, bar charts, pie charts and frequency tables; conversions between metric units; number of degrees in a triangle and circle etc.
The proposed audience for Methods-based Numeracy is all those adults (and 16 – 18 years olds) who post-16 have not yet achieved a level 2 maths qualification, yet would need it in order to progress in their academic studies, progress in their career, improve their future employment prospects, fulfil an employment requirement, support their children with homework, or obtain a sense of personal achievement.
Methods-based Numeracy is available to purchase for £7.99 from Amazon
You can visit Kevin Norley’s homepage here
