The minimum core of numeracy refers to the aspects of numeracy which are required to be integrated into teacher education for the post-compulsory sector. Professional skills tests are the tests which trainee teachers must pass in order to start their teacher training in the
compulsory school sector of teacher training. The two things are different but are underpinned by the same remit, the requirement to include numeracy in training for teachers.
46
QTS tests have been re-named the Professional Skills Tests. These tests are completed at the start of teacher education, although previously trainees were able to book their tests at any point in their training and could then re-book as many resits of the tests as required. The tests have a limit of three attempts and without success at this point trainees must reapply for training after twenty four months and go through the process of the professional skills tests again. The tests are taken online and are marked by the electronic system with the results then being available for both the trainee and their training provider to access.The numeracy professional skills test has twenty eight questions split into sixteen written arithmetic and data questions and twelve mental arithmetic questions which are delivered via audio for the candidates. The audio section of the skills test is seen as the most difficult for trainees as each question is repeated twice but they have a time limit of eighteen seconds for each question to be answered. Each question is worth one mark, regardless of the amount of work, knowledge or skill required to find the answer. The questions in the test have been calibrated against a benchmark test and so although each test is made up of different questions, all will equate to the same levels.
The skills tests have significant time limits and these are likely to impact on a trainee’s ability to take up their place for teacher training as they cannot begin their course at all until evidence is available that their test has been completed and passed, the department for education (DFE 2015) outlines the requirements on their website:
“The numeracy skills test is divided into 2 areas:
mental arithmetic section
written section (written arithmetic and written data)
You will not be tested on your knowledge of the mathematics national curriculum or on how to teach it…..
Each test contains 28 questions made up of 12 mental arithmetic questions and 16 written questions (written arithmetic and written data), plus a practice question that is not scored. All questions carry 1 mark regardless of the number of required responses.
All the numeracy skills tests have been calibrated statistically against a benchmark test. As with any multiple set of tests, the tests are not identical to each other. This is because each test has different questions, but they are all of an equivalent standard. A test with slightly harder
questions will have a slightly lower pass mark and a test with slightly easier questions will have a slightly higher pass mark.”
47
The number of trainee teachers who pass the tests has changed significantly, varyingnegatively with the change in regulations over time. In 2010 the percentage of trainees passing the test for numeracy was 97.41 percent taking all their attempts into account. In 2014, after full implementation of the new regulations this figure had fallen to 79.36 percent (DFE 2015) this may demonstrate that the test regulations have been successful in identifying those trainees who lack the required skills prior to training, or it may be that the test is flawed in its newest format, or that it has become progressively more challenging over time. What is likely to have caused the turndown in results is the cap on the number of attempts at the test, meaning that trainees cannot keep taking the test until they pass.
The core of numeracy in programmes of initial teacher training for the post-compulsory sector forms part of the larger minimum core which includes literacy and language and as part of the professional formation process to be awarded QTLS, there is a requirement of trainees to present a level two mathematics or numeracy qualification. This is only a requirement for those undertaking the professional formation process, a voluntary process rather than a necessary process for teacher training and resulting in an elective conferring of status rather than an industry or sector specific dictate.
Introduced into initial teacher training programmes in August 2004 the specific competencies to be evidenced by trainee teachers were outlined by The Further Education National Training Organization, FENTO (2004) in conjunction with the department for education and skills (DES) and the qualifications curriculum authority (QCA). Minimum core numeracy is divided for classroom delivery into the two distinct sections of personal and social factors. Personal factors include the actual numerical skills needed to function effectively (Newby, 2005) and represent those skills which underpin extended cognition. This is an outline of the actual mathematics required of the trainee teachers and can be clearly evidenced by providing a certificate. Social factors are those (including socio-economic, demographic or behavioural) which may contribute to the impediment of learning for students, providing barriers to learning in mathematics and numeracy. Social factors are essentially a topographical map of students which will affect how they learn any subject, not limited to numeracy alone. Developing an understanding of these factors is beneficial to understanding how students learn in any subject.
48
Trainee teachers can be encouraged to explore these areas with special reference to the overlap of features with vocational areas. To achieve an appropriate level of understanding trainee teachers are required to be able to reflect on their own and learners attitudes and attainment relating to personal levels of basic or essential skills use and to new learning that involves these skills (FENTO (b) 2004). Examining how social and personal factors can impact on essential skills learning in particular also creates a wider awareness of how these factors impact on learning in a broader sense. Further to this trainee teachers are encouraged to identify the underlying elements of numeracy which are occurring within their own classes, which is by far the most difficult aspect to address, this process having evaded many fully qualified and experienced teachers. This has been described clearly by Callingham et al (2015): ‘A challenge hence exists to raise teachers’ awareness of the nature and importance ofnumeracy, and to encourage their engagement with numeracy aspects of subjects outside mathematics.’ P.551. Callingham et al examined the feelings of practicing teachers finding a negative situation resulting in avoidance of the subject:
‘For teachers who actively avoid mathematical ideas, or are simply unaware of the numeracy possibilities, the expectation that all teachers are teachers of numeracy makes an increased demand on their professional knowledge.’ P.552.
Mathematics is a specific skill which has been in short supply in the UK, leading to criticisms that teachers are not sufficiently numerate or qualified to be able to support their learners (Hudson, 2006). With reference to those teachers who teach mathematics and numeracy as their specific subject and those teachers who teach another subject but need to support numerical skills development for their learners. The development of numerical skills can be encouraged through both continuing professional development (CPD) for established teachers and through the implementation of the minimum core for trainee teachers in the post-compulsory sector and completion of the QTS tests in the compulsory sector depending on the role of the individual (Tout, 2005).