Numeracy projects

Project summary 2004 | Research Reports | Philosophy | Early Numeracy Project (ENP) | Advanced Numeracy Project(ANP) | Numeracy Exploratory Study 2001 (NEST)

This section backgrounds the philosophy behind the Ministry of Education's Numeracy Development Projects, which is to improve student performance in mathematics through improving the professional capability of teachers.

This section includes summaries of the numeracy projects that are currently available to teachers to help them develop effective numeracy practice, and brief outlines of the exploratory studies and pilot projects that lead to these numeracy projects.

Numeracy Projects Summary 2004

Numeracy Professional Development Projects

Numeracy Project Assessment (NumPA)

The Numeracy Project Assessment (NumPA) is an integral part of the new teaching approach. Through their professional development teachers learn to use the assessment as part of their regular classroom teaching. The NumPA results are entered on a national website database and record students' progress. Schools can access the national data to establish targets for planning and reporting purposes. Teachers group students according to ability and use activities that will support students in both strategy and knowledge development.

Support materials for schools

About $6 million has been spent on resources for schools since 2000. 53 booklets are available in the Figure It Out series – 35 have been translated for teachers in Māori medium settings and published as the He Tau Ano Te Tau series. Further booklets are being developed and translated. www.nzmaths.co.nz is the Ministry's maths resource centre offering support for the teaching of mathematics at levels 1–6 of the curriculum. It provides principals and teachers with access to all numeracy project information and materials which are constantly updated. The site also has links to other mathematics websites for teachers, children and parents. The website traffic has expanded exponentially each year.

The literacy and numeracy test asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning) are tests that enable teachers in years 5–7 to track the progress and achievement of both individual students and groups of students against national literacy and numeracy standards, and then target teaching to address students' weaknesses. Tests will be available for years 8 – 10 by December 2004.

Special numeracy projects in schools

Five of the Ministry of Education's schooling improvement projects focus on improving numeracy at all levels. These are the project involving all Kawerau schools, and three Auckland-based projects in Manurewa, Waitakere and Mt Wellington/Pamure (Tamaki). Schools participating in professional development linked to Iwi Partnership agreements are encouraged to participate in Te Poutama Tau. Iwi involved in this way in 2004 include Ngāti Porou, and Ngāpuhi. Tuwharetoa propose to join Te Poutama Tau in 2005.

Evaluations and Research

Each numeracy project is independently evaluated and researched. The evaluation reports are available online.

The underlying philosophy behind the Ministry of Education's Numeracy Development Projects is that teachers are key figures in changing the way in which mathematics is taught and learned in schools. Their subject matter and pedagogical knowledge are critical factors in the teaching of mathematics for understanding. The effective teacher of mathematics has a thorough and deep understanding of the subject matter to be taught, how students are likely to learn it, and the difficulties and misunderstandings they are likely to encounter.

The focus of the Numeracy Development Projects is to improve student performance in mathematics through improving the professional capability of teachers. It is intended that by 2005 most teachers of year 1 to 3 students, the majority of the teachers of year 4 to 6 students, and many of the teachers of year 7 and 8 students will have had the opportunity to participate in the numeracy projects.

A key feature of the projects is their dynamic and evolutionary approach to implementation. This ensures that the projects can be informed by developing understandings about mathematics learning and effective professional development and that flexibility in approach and sector involvement is maximised.

The projects build on the findings and experience associated with the numeracy professional development projects that operated in 2000 and 2001. These projects have made an important contribution to what we know about:

• children's learning and thinking strategies in early mathematics;
• effective identification of, and response to, children's learning needs;
• the characteristics of professional development programmes that change teaching practice; and
• effective facilitation.

Such findings continue to inform the modification and further development of the projects. National coordinators and facilitators from each region provide ongoing feedback about aspects of the projects. See map for details.

The Early Numeracy Project (ENP) professional development programme encourages teachers to analyse the mental strategies that students use to solve number problems, as opposed to simply checking that students have the correct solutions. The instruction is then targeted to the specific learning needs of each student. This programme reflects the principles behind the mathematics curriculum statement. It was piloted nationally during 2000, under the name of Count Me In Too, to inform the development of the numeracy policy.

Count Me In Too Pilot Study
Read summary of the pilot study, and download a PDF version.

Evaluation of the Early Numeracy Project, 2001 (ENP)
Download a PDF version of the evaluation by Gill Thomas and Jenny Ward, Dunedin College of Education: Te Kura Akau Taitoka.

The Advanced Numeracy Project (ANP) is the name given in 2001 to the pilot professional development project known previously as the Year 4–6 Numeracy Exploratory Study (NEST).

In 2000, the Ministry of Education offered New Zealand schools the Year 4–6 Numeracy Exploratory Study, to improve the teaching and learning of number concepts and skills. The Numeracy Exploratory Study presented teachers with a framework of broad stages in students' mathematical thinking in which the different stages are characterised by the range of strategies that students use to solve problems. This number framework relates to most of the achievement aims and objectives at levels 1–4 of the Number strand of the mathematics curriculum.

The overall aim of the Numeracy Exploratory Study was to develop the teachers' knowledge of number concepts, student strategies, and instructional practice in order to improve student achievement in years 4 to 6.

Read the 2001 An Evaluation of the Year 4–6 Numeracy Exploratory Study
Ministry of Education report (some of the report is in PDF format).

Evaluation of the Advanced Numeracy Project 2001 (ANP)
Download a PDF version of the evaluation of the Advanced Numeracy Project 2001, by Joanna Higgins, Wellington College of Education Te Whānau o Ako Pai ki te Upoko o te Ika.

NEST and NESTA
Download a PDF version of an evaluation of the Numeracy Exploratory Study (NEST), and the Associated Numeracy Exploratory Study Assessment (NESTA) Years 7–10, 2001, by Kathryn C. Irwin and Kate Niederer School of Education, University of Auckland, Te Waananga o Waipapa.

The Secondary Numeracy Project (SNP) was first piloted in 2005 and builds on the findings of the Numeracy Exploratory Studies for students in years 7 to 10 (NEST) that operated from 2001. The implementation in secondary schools involves a whole mathematics department and recognises the particular needs of secondary mathematics teachers. The Project emphasises the use of mental computational strategies to solve numeric problems and aims to help students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics.

As part of the Numeracy Development Project, SNP shares features with the other parts of the project. The Number Framework describes strategies and knowledge that students have been observed to use to solve numerical problems. It contains broad stages of increasingly sophisticated strategies with progress through the earlier stages tending to occur more readily than later stages. Teachers conduct a Diagnostic Interview to assess students’ performance against this framework, and use this information as a starting point for teaching. Facilitators introduce and model a teaching approach for developing mathematical understanding that progresses through physical representations, imaging and on to abstract mathematical concepts.

SNP has the goal of developing students’ capacity to work efficiently with numbers by developing their computational strategies. This structural thinking can then be exploited to develop their understanding of algebra.