Closing the numeracy gap

Professor Graham Orpwood

Abstract

Data from a variety of national and international projects such as PISA have raised questions about the adequacy of numeracy levels of British adults and children. In Canada, too, we have had similar questions and concerns and, in a recent paper (published on the internet at www.numeracygap.ca), I and a colleague have described what we call a “numeracy gap” – a gap between where we as a society are and where we need to be to enable full participation in a technological society. The paper also proposes a series of actions that, we argue, need to be taken to close this gap, starting with fundamentally changing public attitudes towards numeracy. In sharing the Canadian research here, we do not advocate exactly the same solutions. Rather, we invite discussion of the range of causes for the British numeracy gap and the responses most needed here.

About the Speaker

Professor Graham Orpwood is a Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, York University, Toronto. Professor Orpwood has been spent 30 years in the field of policy research in education. He has worked at Federal, Provincial and Local levels as well as in international fields, as a research manager and director, methodologist, Ministerial advisor, author, lecturer and consultant.