Time and again this research is supported by practitioners telling us that it is attitudes that make the difference to attainment. Yet to date, no resources have been created to tackle lack of confidence and inhibiting attitudes.
Many people try to avoid numbers and data in the workplace and daily life, and it has become acceptable to say “I can’t do maths” and accept this as a fact. National Numeracy has a winning formula to help people overcome these barriers – we call this ‘Value, Belief and Effort’. If someone appreciates the value of numeracy, believes that they can improve, and accepts that effort is needed, then they can increase their self-confidence, confidence with numbers and money, and appetite for learning. These are the keys to improving numeracy when skills resources are then engaged with.
Alongside our existing adaptive online assessment which checks numeracy level, strengths and weaknesses and whether someone has the Essentials of Numeracy, and our bespoke links to curated digital learning resources, the two new tools in the Challenge are:
- The Attitudes Quiz – This has been developed with Dr Darren Van Laar and the Applied Psychology team at Portsmouth University as a valid and reliable psychometric assessment. The Quiz provides useful feedback to the learner regarding their self-confidence, confidence with numbers and money, appetite for learning, and appreciation of the ‘value, belief and effort’ needed to improve their numeracy.
- Building Confidence resources – This suite of interactive modules addresses attitudes to numeracy in order to overcome barriers to learning. The first module is available to all users with the remaining content accessible via partner organisations with which National Numeracy work.
