Handbook on best practice methods for Basic skills trainings Best practice handbook | Page 20

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Numeracy Course for Adults
State and implementing organization
Romania- Asociatia Edulifelong
Short description
The purpose of this course was to enable students to develop the confidence and skills to
perform simple and familiar numeracy tasks and to develop the ability to make sense of
mathematics in their daily personal lives.
The course lasted 20 hours. It has focused on the following units: design, measuring, money
and time, location, data and numerical information. The mathematics involved includes
measurement, shape, numbers, and graphs that are part of the students’ normal routines to
do with shopping, travelling, cooking, interpreting public information, telling the time etc. On
successful completion of this unit students will be able to perform everyday mathematical
tasks which involve a single mathematical step or process. Their communication about
mathematical ideas would mainly be spoken rather than written responses.
Target group
Adults with poor numeracy skills
Products / Outcomes
The course included the following topics: Appreciating, Tiling, Constructing, Reading scales,
Converting, Estimating, Quantifying, Currencies, money conversion, Interpreting Time,
Position and orientation, Interpreting data, Interpreting charts, Comparing groups, Mixing,
Comparing, Scaling, Trading off, Making decisions, Playing and Simulating.
Mapping of numeracy skills
The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is a
programme of assessment and analysis of adult skills. The major survey conducted as part of
PIAAC is the Survey of Adult Skills. The Survey measures adults’ proficiency in key
information-processing skills - literacy, numeracy and problem solving - and gathers
information and data on how adults use their skills at home, at work and in the wider
community.
This international survey is conducted in over 40 countries/economies and measures the key
cognitive and workplace skills needed for individuals to participate in society and for
economies to prosper.
Online mapping of numeracy skills
https://www.qtsmathstutor.co.uk/test/test-1/
How to motivate for this kind of training
The skills and knowledge elements in the adult numeracy curriculum are general, because
they are the just the building blocks that everyone needs in order to use numeracy skills
effectively in their everyday life. How adults use these skills and the widely is differing due to
past experiences that they bring to their learning. This is the context that the learner provides.
Each individual learner will come with their own set of priorities and requirements, and these
must be the starting point of their learning diary.