Numeracy In Schools

This research site is located in a small desert community, on the sea with a population of approximately 7500 people. There are four schools in the town: one for ages 3 through 5, one for grades 1 through 5 which has boys and girls separated on different wings, a secondary boys school which includes grades 6 though 12, and lastly the secondary girls school which includes grades 6 through 12. The people of the community often continue a tradition of nomadic life, living in tents, camping, and camel herding and farming, all while trying to incorporate a modern life style, such as driving cars, using Internet and social media, and having a concrete home. The country started establishing government ran schools approximately 20 years ago. According to the local people, this community started to send their students to …show more content…
This brought about the idea of using cooperative learning strategies to help the students learn from one another and increase each student’s numeracy skills. When students were allowed to speak both English and Arabic, the students’ knowledge of numbers seems to increase slightly. Incorporating different cooperative strategies such as think pair share, roundtable, and strategic grouping will help each student improve their numeracy skills because each will be forced to think, as well as communicate with their peers in class. After 3 sessions of having shadow teachers translate directions and questions into Arabic, students began to increase their questioning of how to do certain skills. Numeracy skill test have been created for the students as well as practice sheets for each of the 12 skills. Students have the ability to practice at home each of the 12 skills before the numeracy skill assessments are