Personal numeracy standards of entrants to teacher education courses

There is continuing concern about prospective teachers’ knowledge and understanding of mathematics in an increasingly technological world. The Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) (2011) has recognised the importance of teachers’ literacy and numeracy and has set a standard for pre-service teacher education courses against which universities are expected to provide evidence. As a result, universities are increasingly attempting to measure their pre-service teacher education students’ achievement in literacy and numeracy. This paper reports on the outcomes of a numeracy test which all students undertook in their first semester of the course.