Curriculum intent, teacher professional development and student learning in numeracy

Numeracy, or mathematical literacy as it is also known, is a major educational goal internationally, and as such, is addressed in the curriculum documents of educational jurisdictions and in national and international testing regimes. This chapter reports on an aspect of a research study which investigated the interrelationship between curriculum intent, teacher professional learning and action, and students’ perspectives on their own learning in a 12 month long research and development project. Specifically, this chapter examines the impact upon student learning as a teacher attempted to implement the numeracy requirements of a state based curriculum in an educational jurisdiction within Australia. These attempts were structured through a rich model of numeracy and supported through regular interaction with the project researchers in a collaborative partnership aimed at improving student learning outcomes in alignment with state curriculum objectives. An emergent aspect of the project is the importance of a clear model of numeracy, which outlines essential elements, to changes in a teacher’s numeracy practice. These changes in practice led to positive student views on their mathematics learning and to greater connectedness of this learning within and outside of mathematics itself.