The Growing Importance of Cognitive Skills in Wage Determination

In this essay, I examine the extent to which mathematics education and education for quantitative literacy support students' present and future flourishing, a concept that entails realizing objective goods in a life lived from the inside. This perspective requires disentangling philosophical assumptions about the aims of mathematics education, which-in the context of flourishing-I take to be a hybrid of those that have informed curricular discussions over the past two centuries. In the process, I problematize ("make strange") many of the common reasons given for students learning mathematics, including: learning it for one's career, for one's logical reasoning skills, or for its own sake. My conclusion is that, through the end of compulsory schooling, all students should take coursework that fosters quantitative literacy, or the ability and disposition to use, interpret, and criticize numbers as they manifest in daily life. In addition, in the same environment, traditional mathematics should be included and compulsory up to grade eight, but afterward required only insofar as it is necessary for fulfilling one's goals. I pursue this line of argument with full cognizance of sociopolitical elements of mathematics education and other challenges in implementation, noting that appealing to consequences-while fine as a justification for avoiding change in the short-term-is not a tenable justification for doing so in the long-term. I challenge readers to reflect on our ability to empower students for future flourishing, and to consider the role that mathematics has in doing so.

Section: Mathematics For Flourishingmentioning

confidence: 94%

Quantitative Literacy for the Future Flourishing of our Students: A Guiding Aim for Mathematics Education

Tunstall¹

2017

“…Indeed, researchers have found that mathematical ability is connected to both wage increases and likelihood of fulltime employment (Eide and Grogger 1995;Levy et al 1995;Rivera-Batiz 1992). In addition, some have linked numeracy with better decision-making (Jasper et al 2013), nutrition label understanding (Rothman et al 2006), as well as with better risk comprehension in health care (Fagerlin et al 2007;Lipkus and Peters 2009).…”

Section: Quantitative Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Words Matter: Discourse and Numeracy

Tunstall¹

2016

Here I discuss elements of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and their importance in relation to quantitative literacy (QL). Through an overview of theory, synthesis of research, and examples, I argue that the discursive nature of textbooks has a nontrivial impact on students' mathematical dispositions -an important component of QL. In particular, texts are a means of disseminating the culture of mathematics, one which has a tendency to paint mathematics as esoteric and male-dominated. Such a characterization has profound implications for the numeracy community, one of which is that we cannot assume that changes in curriculum are sufficient for effecting QL --simply transitioning to more contextualized mathematics is not enough. Furthermore, it is critical that we examine our own discourse--whether spoken or through text--for ways in which we may be implicitly or explicitly prolong a view of mathematics in which students have little agency. Samuel Luke Tunstall is a graduate student in mathematics education and University Distinguished Fellow at Michigan State University. He has taught at multiple levels and is interested in curricula that promote quantitative literacy. In particular, he has an interest in post-secondary mathematics courses and the ways in which they can promote numeracy.

“…To begin, researchers have found that mathematical ability is connected not only to wage increases and likelihood of fulltime employment (Rivera-Batiz 1992; Eide and Grogger 1995;Levy et al 1995), but also forward thinking in one's personal finances (Lusardi 2012;Nye and Hillyard 2013). In addition, numeracy is linked with better decision-making (Peters et al 2006;Jasper et al 2013), nutrition label understanding (Rothman et al 2006), as well as with better risk comprehension in healthcare (Fagerlin et al 2007;Lipkus and Peters 2009).…”

Section: Motivation For Numeracymentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting Numeracy in an Online College Algebra Course through Projects and Discussions

Tunstall

Bossé

2015

This research stems from efforts to infuse quantitative literacy (QL) in an online version of college algebra. College algebra fulfills a QL requirement at many universities, and it is a terminal course for most who take it. In light of the course's traditional content and teaching methods, students often leave with little gained in QL. An online platform provides a unique means of engaging students in quantitative discussions and research, yet little research exists on online courses in the context of QL. The course studied included weekly news discussions as well as "messy" projects requiring data analysis. Students in online and face-to-face sections of the course took the Quantitative Literacy and Reasoning Assessment ( QLRA; developed by members of the National Numeracy Network) during the first and final weeks of the fall 2014 semester. There were significant statistical gains in the online students' QLRA performance and mathematical affect but none for the face-toface students. Notwithstanding limitations of the study, the results support the notion that project-based learning in an online environment is a promising strategy for promoting QL in terminal math courses.