12 th International Congress on Mathematical Education Topic Study Group 21 8 July – 15 July, 2012, COEX, Seoul, Korea CHANGING CLASSROOM PRACTICE THROUGH A RICH MODEL OF NUMERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM Merrilyn Goos Vince Geiger Shelley Dole The University of Queensland Australian Catholic University The University of Queensland m.goos@uq.edu.au vincent.geiger@acu.edu.au s.dole@uq.edu.au This paper reports on a research and development project that helped teachers to plan and implement numeracy strategies across the school curriculum. It presents a rich model of numeracy whose elements comprise mathematical knowledge, dispositions, tools, contexts, and a critical orientation to the use of mathematics. This model is then applied to analyse changes in one teacher’s planning, classroom practice, and personal conceptions of numeracy. Numeracy; teacher development; curriculum development. INTRODUCTION The term numeracy is used in many English-speaking countries to describe the capacity to deal with quantitative aspects of life. Numeracy, quantitative literacy and mathematical literacy are similar in that they refer to: an individual’s capacity to identify and understand the role mathematics plays in the world, to make well-founded judgments, and to use and engage with mathematics in ways that meet the needs of that individual’s life as a constructive, concerned and reflective citizen. (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2004, p. 15) Steen (2001) maintains that, for numeracy to be useful to students, it must be learned in multiple contexts and in all school subjects, not just mathematics. This is a challenging notion, but a recent review of numeracy education undertaken by the Australian government (Human Capital Working Group, Council of Australian Governments, 2008) concurred, recommending: That all systems and schools recognise that, while mathematics can be taught in the context of mathematics lessons, the development of numeracy requires experience in the use of mathematics beyond the mathematics classroom, and hence requires an across the curriculum commitment. (p. 7) The study reported here aimed to investigate approaches to help teachers plan and implement numeracy strategies across the Australian school curriculum in Grades 6-9. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new model of numeracy that was developed to synthesise and extend previous research in this area, and demonstrate how this model was used to analyse changes in teachers’ planning, classroom practice, and personal conceptions of numeracy. In 4329