Mathematics Instructional Guidelines for Promoting Numeracy of Primary Students

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the current conditions and problems in mathematics instruction for enhancing numeracy in primary students, and 2) to propose instructional approaches for enhancing numeracy in primary students. The target group consisted of upper primary mathematics teachers under the Bangkok Primary Educational Service Area Office. The research instruments included questionnaires, interviews, and observation forms. The statistics used were percentage, mean, and standard deviation.      

         The research results indicated that 1) the overall condition of mathematics instruction across four aspects was at a “high” level. When individual aspects were considered, the aspect with the highest practical level was lesson preparation, instructional media, measurement and evaluation, and instructional activities, respectively.  Identified problems included teachers’ lack of preparation of real-life context scenarios, students’ insufficient mathematical knowledge to handle such scenarios, teachers’ limited skills in using media that link to numeracy, and students’ reading difficulties that affected the interpretation of mathematical information, leading to evaluation inaccuracies. 2) Proposed instructional approaches included: 2.1) Teachers should design real-life situations, 2.2) Teachers should organize activities that allow students to apply their numeracy, 2.3) Teachers should use instructional media that engage students in applying numeracy, and 2.4) Teachers should measure and evaluate students based on components of numeracy using rubric-based evaluation criteria.