Stair (2017) asserted that literacy and numeracy both are a part of the seven ‘General Capabilities’ that expand across the Australian Curriculum. The other five ‘General Capabilities’ are; critical and creative thinking, ethical understanding, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities, intercultural understandings, and personal and social capabilities (Freebody et al., 2014, p. 6; Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.).
Let’s first discuss literacy and how does it apply to a classroom if you aren’t an English teacher, and what is the importance of literacy across the curriculum? For an individual to become a literate person, it means a lot more than just being able to read and write (Connolly, 2016). Otherwise known as ‘traditional literacy’, although useful, today’s modern school society needs to address and support children in their development of other key learning literacy skills related to the 21st century and beyond (21st Century Literacy, n.d.).
Bromley (2017) offers a fantastic quote; “every teacher is a teacher of English because every teacher is a teacher in English”. English teachers aren’t alone when it comes to teaching literacy, it is essential that all teachers across the curriculum help them develop a child’s literate ability. Because today's modern society is far more demanding than of that of old, students must possess certain specific capabilities that adhere to the rapidly advancing world filled with diverse cultures, media, print texts and technologies (Connolly, 2016).
Fig 1. Literacy in 21st Century (source: 21st Century Literacy, n.d).
Referring to the above (Fig. 1), today's modern society insists that all students acquire knowledge of various other skills. The 21st century literate person needs to understand how to; design and share information to cater for a variety of purposes of the global community, understand how visual elements work together in distinctive ways that differ for each curricular area, develop the ability to break down various texts or media to identify biased opinions that the publisher might’ve displayed, create, critique, analyse, and evaluate blog posts, journal articles, or any other form of multimedia text, understand how to operate tools of technology such as calculators or computers, and have the essential skills required to live, learn and work in society whereas the use of communication and access to information is rapidly advancing through digital technologies (Alber, 2013; O’Brien, 2017; The Audiopedia, 2017; Western Sydney University, n.d.).
Meiers (2015) states that not all the above skills can be taught standalone by English teachers. A few of the above skills can be taught within English learning area, however, they are strengthened, made specific and extended by other teachers across the curricula within other learning areas (p. 18).
How does numeracy apply to a classroom if you aren’t a math’s teacher, and what is the importance of literacy across the curriculum? Numeracy is understood as an individual’s confidence and competence in interpreting numbers in daily life, enabling them the ability to effectively solve problems, analyse and understand information, participate in the society, and produce knowledgeable decisions (Baker et al., 2008, p. 9; Mills, 2013, p. 3; Raising Children Network, 2016).
For a student to become a numerate person, they must develop skills to have the ability to apply mathematics knowledge both flexible and adaptively across all learning areas in school and in their everyday lives in a confident and willful manner (Goos, 2012, p. 4; ResourceLink Brisbane Catholic Education, 2012).
A child participates in everyday activities as they will begin to learn numeracy skills from the moment they are born (RCN, 2016). As the child grows older, mathematical teachers hold the responsibility of teaching most of the skills, however, many skills can only be developed once numeracy is implemented across the curriculum with the assistance from all teachers (Jebeile, 2017, p. 9). Students can learn simultaneously whilst they gain knowledge and skills during their engagement in learning literacy and numeracy throughout all curriculum units, such as arts, English, Technologies, Science, etc. (ACARA, n.d.).
Because the world is rapidly advancing with new technologies and other innovations, jobs are now becoming more complex and require a greater set of skills (Alexander, 2013). Poor literacy and numeracy skills have a significant impact on school transitions and employment opportunities which lowers the morale on an individual, producing poor health prospects and creates lack of social and political participation (Forgasz, 2015, p. 611). Both literacy and numeracy provide a set of valuable interrelated skills that will inevitably prove useful for an individual and their goals to achieve success in life (Kangan Institute, n.d.).
Reference
21st Century Literacy. (n.d.). What is 21st Century Literacy? Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/mail.csuchico.edu/21st-century-literacy/
Alber, R. (2013, January 21). Deeper Learning: Defining Twenty-First Century Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/twenty-first-century-literacy-deeper-learning-rebecca-alber
Alexander, H. (2013, November 4). Workplace productivity affected by low literacy and numeracy levels: Survey. Retrieved from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/innovation/workplace-productivity-affected-by-low-literacy-and-numeracy-levels-survey-2/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (n.d.). General capabilities. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/
Baker, D., Street, B., & Tomlin, A. (2008). Navigating Numeracies. Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/pdf/10.1007%2F1-4020-3677-9.pdf
Bromley, M. (2017, June 7). Every teacher is a teacher of literacy: Literacy across the curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/every-teacher-is-a-teacher-of-literacy-teaching-literacy-across-the-curriculum-part-1/
Connolly, M., & Giouroukakis, V. (2016). Achieving Next Generation Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/116023/chapters/What-Is-a-Literate-Individual%C2%A2.aspx
Forgasz, H., Geiger, V., & Goos, M. (2015). ZDM Mathematics Education. (p. 611-624). Retrieved from https://link-springer-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11858-014-0648-1.pdf
Freebody, P., Morgan, A., Comber, B., & Nixon, H. (2014). Literacy in the middle years: learning from collaborative classroom research. (p. 1-14). Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/ereserve/DC60272049/0?display=1
Goos, M., Dole, S., & Geiger, V. (2012). Numeracy across the curriculum. (p. 3-7). Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ974975.pdf
Jebeile, N. (2017, November 27). Numeracy Skills Framework. Retrieved from http://numeracyskills.com.au/resources/NumeracySkillsFramework2017.pptx
Kangan Institute. (n.d.). The Importance of Literacy and Numeracy Skills. Retrieved from https://www.kangan.edu.au/students/blog/importance-literacy-and-numeracy-skills
Meiers, M. (2015). Meeting the challenge of disciplinary literacies. (p. 17-20). Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/fullText;dn=208907;res=AEIPT
Mills, G. (2014). Responsibility of all Literacy Numeracy Health and Wellbeing. Retrieved from http://slideplayer.com/slide/783524/
O’Brien, A. (2017). Visual Literacy. Retrieved from https://creatingmultimodaltexts.com/visual-literacy/
Raising Children Network (RCN). (2016, December 09). Developing early numeracy skills. Retrieved from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/developing_early_numeracy_skills.html
ResourceLink Brisbane Catholic Education (RBCE). (2012, February 20). Numeracy Ideas for the Contemporary Classroom. Retrieved from https://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/numeracy-ideas-for-the-contemporary-classroom/
Stair, T. (2017, December 14). RE: Discussion Topic - Literacy and Numeracy in the Australian Curriculum [Blog comment]. Retrieved from https://lms.curtin.edu.au/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&course_id=_79764_1&nav=group_forum&group_id=_200805_1&conf_id=_249396_1&forum_id=_589240_1&message_id=_8427793_1
The Audiopedia. (2017, August 10). What is CRITICAL LITERACY? What does CRITICAL LITERACY mean? CRITICAL LITERACY meaning & explanation [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2WyIkK9IOg
Western Sydney University. (n.d.). What is digital literacy? Retrieved from https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/digital_literacy/what_is_digital_literacy
No comments:
Post a Comment