“The project sets out to explore the extent and nature of the relationship between the mathematical knowledge and skills of students and their capacity to use their numeracy when it matters,” said Centre Director Mr Gary Martin.
Funding of $556,600 was awarded through the Commonwealth Department of Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) to manage the project for the Department of Education (WA), the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia and the Association for Independent Schools of Western Australia.

A long-time associate of Murdoch University, Mr John Hogan of Redgum Consulting, has been appointed to direct the project.

He will work with a research team comprising staff from the School of Education at Murdoch and numeracy experts from a range of institutions.

Mr Hogan said the research would examine the nature of the numeracy demands made on students across the curriculum, and how well the students coped with these demands.

“An important part of the research will consider what teachers do to assist students to respond to numeracy demands,” he said.

“There has been little by way of research, either nationally or internationally, that has looked at the relationship between students’ basic mathematical skills and their capacity to use them in situations other than in a mathematics class,” he said.

“The importance of the research means the project’s results have the potential to put Australia at the forefront of numeracy research internationally.”