Hello, Barbara! Thank you for visiting our page and for your thoughtful question. I agree with you that traditional mathematic pathways often limit students and their career aspirations. It’s important that academic and career advisors advertise to students the number of well-paying jobs (e.g., practical nursing, advance manufacturing, IT technicians/support specialists) that require basic math skill and some college credential like a certificate or an associate degree.

Our larger body of work looks at how community colleges develop students’ technical and basic skills (e.g., reading/writing and math) in these fields. Based on our preliminary findings, including interviews with community colleges, we found that some programs have components of basic math embedded in non-math-related courses. For example, math may be embedded in how to deliver medications to patients or how to gather and construct building materials. Ensuring that students have applied and hands-on experiences with basic math can limit their fear of math. Ultimately, these math embedded courses expose students to and improve their basic math skills, which is vital for students and their career aspirations. 

Lastly, thank you for mentioning Jo Boaler. I, personally, have not heard of her work 'til now. I look forward to reading her materials and applying it to our work. If there are similar scholars like her, please let me know. I sincerely appreciate it. :-) 

I agree!  We need to demonstrate its value every day! Years ago, we ran a special program for kids and parents in one of our districts. We had our middle school students who struggled with reading, read to little elementary students in a one-hour library evening event that occurred weekly for about 6 weeks. While that was happening we ran workshops for the parents on things like nutritional snacks for little dollars, encouraging employable soft skills in children, growing student responsibility at home, and thinking out loud about the math you do everyday! We hoped it would help both parents and the children involved in many ways.

Brian and Barbara -- I couldn't agree more! Keeping math in a box, as Brian mentioned, limits the ability of students to apply math in everyday context and critically problem-solve. 

Brian, I'm curious to hear from you. What pedagogies do you recommend for postsecondary instructors to use when trying to promote basic math skills among college students including first-year college students and/or adult learners who may be struggling with basic math? 

That's a big question for sure. But the key is probably to not assume that everyone has good numeracy skills. Take advantage of opportunities to articulate the uses (and processes) for using math across topics. Some students may be annoyed at discussion of supposedly remedial topics, but most of the students will appreciate the refresher. Often students who learn topics can benefit from more discussion about why we use the math we do.

This is helpful information, Brian! Thanks so much for sharing. As part of my team's ongoing research, we ask postsecondary instructors some of the pedagogies they use to promote basic math skills among students who are struggling. Your suggestion is something I'll be on the lookout for as I continue to interview community college instructors. I am curious to see how many instructors do this. Thanks, again!

I love this thread. As a parent, I was constantly talking with my kids about reading, and the importance of it, while we were out in the world. We found letters while we drove. We read billboards. We read menus when we were out to eat. We read packages at the grocery store. Now I'm thinking of all the missed opportunities there were to treat math and numeracy the same way - speed limits, comparing prices, looking at gas prices per gallon, even talking about radio call numbers. Of course, we did some of that, but not nearly to the extent that we focused on reading/literacy skills. 

Jena, thank you for visiting our page and for your thoughtful question. We gathered our data from the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). After reviewing the background questionnaire, it looks like the question regarding advanced math and statistics ask: "In everyday life, how often do you use use more advanced math or statistics such as calculus, complex algebra, trigonometry or use of regression techniques?" It is likely that individuals with more formal training are likely to recognize when they are using advanced math or statistics at home. This point is well taken, and we'll continue to explore this in our ongoing project.

For more details on the PIAAC dataset and what some of the other practices look like, you can visit the following website: https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/piaacdesign/ 

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks so much for visiting our page, Kristin! We're glad that you find this video easy to understand. The Passion-Drive Statistics model sounds like an engaging and productive way of embedding math and statistics in real world contexts. I'm excited to visit your page and watch your video on this. 

Kristin, I'm curious to hear more about your pedagogy for promoting students' basic math skills as well as soft skills. In addition to the Passion-Driven Statistics model, how are you teaching your students these skills? How are you trying to get the message across that these other skills are equally important as the software and technology skills you mentioned?   

Throughout the course I point out the application to the real-world and probe students for examples. When we cover percentiles we discuss how all parents from conception through the child's schooling they will need to understand percentiles.

The practical and soft skills are inherent in the statistics and research process so simply engaging in the project throughout the semester automatically builds those learning experiences into the course in an engaging way.

I find simply telling them they are going to learn xyz skill and then remind them of it when we are learning it or they are using it. For example, time management, problem-solving, using all resources available and learning when to ask questions, development of graphs/visuals and presentation skills and much more. 

This is helpful information, Kristin! Thanks so much for sharing. I agree that telling students the importance of learning XYZ skill cuts out the process of guessing: "Why am I even doing this?" and gives students a greater sense of appreciation of the learning process and their newly acquired skill. 

Greats questions, Ann! We used data from the 2012/14/17 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) restricted use file and latent class analysis to identity the non-users, at-home users, at-work users, and the hybrid users. Respondents were asked questions such as: "In everyday life, often do you use use more advanced math or statistics such as calculus, complex algebra, trigonometry or use of regression techniques?" etc. We had a final sample size of 5,220 adults aged 25-65 years old. Generally, the hybrid users had higher numeracy scores, middle-aged, White, born in the U.S., college educated, high income earners, and held a background in STEM. Of course, the sociodemographic characteristics varied by the types of users.

This project is part of a larger study that examines the role of community colleges in promoting students' technical skills as well as basic skills. These community college students include first-year students and adult learners. We argue that regardless of technical skills, basic skills (e.g., reading/writing and math) are transferable and necessary for individual's socioeconomic growth and competitiveness in the labor market. Our project has three goals: (1) to identity the national skills distribution in the U.S., (2) to identity the skills distribution among community college students, and then compare it to that national distribution, and (3) to identity best programs and practices that promote students' basic skills as gathered from our interviews with the community colleges. Currently, we're still gathering our findings across the three areas of the project. To keep up with our work, feel free to connect with us via LinkedIn and Twitter, or check out the following IES website: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=3392 

Finally, if you're curious to learn more about the PIAAC data, please visit the following website: https://www.oecd.org/skills/piaac/piaacdesign/ 

Thank you! Fantastic work - I look forward to following your research! 

Thanks so much for sharing, Chris! Excited to see how your work aligns with ours. 

Thank you for visiting our page and for your thoughtful comment. We're hoping to look at motivation to learn constructs and numeracy skills. We're still in the data gathering phase right now. To follow our work, please follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, or click on the following link: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/grantsearch/details.asp?ID=3392 

Will do. Thanks so much!

This is an interesting viewpoint. Unfortunately, I don't have enough information to form a view point. Would you be able to share more information, or your perspectives on how it could not be beneficial, or how it could be harmful to students' math learning? 

Sure! Here are some interesting articles/reports:

National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCSM & NCTM, 2018). Building STEM Education on a Sound Mathematical Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.nctm.org/Standards-and-Positions/Po...

English, L. D. (2016). STEM Education K-12: Perspectives on Integration. International Journal of STEM Education 3(3), 1-8.

Honey, M., Pearson, G. and Schweingruber, A. (2014). STEM integration in K-12 education: status, prospects, and an agenda for research. Washington: National Academies Press.

Thanks so much for sharing! Excited to take a look at these materials and discuss it with my team. 

Thanks so much for viewing our video!

Interesting! I have not heard of this before. Unfortunately, I don't have enough information regarding the 7-12th grade perspective, but I am happy to discuss the higher education perspective. Based on interviews we've had with the community colleges, including students, faculty, and employers, we found that both basic algebra and statistics are crucial for adults' numeracy skills and employment outcomes. Students who are in nursing, IT, engineering, etc., and obtaining two-year degrees or certificates have reported the importance of basic math for calculating dosages, delivering medication, troubleshooting computer data points, or constructing/evaluating buildings. Therefore, algebra, trigonometry, geometry would be dependent on the type of jobs students wish to have and if their prospective employers find them necessary to do the job. 

Have you interviewed STEM corporations? Ted Dintersmith is an entrepreneur. He knows what math skills corporations want. wrote (on page 151), "... probability and statistics, computer programming, estimation, financial literacy, data analytics, decision analysis, algorithm structuring, problem-solving strategies, or digital fabrication."