Personal and social factors affecting numeracy acquisition

Learning Mathematics

Acquisition of numeracy has been an issue that has attracted a lot or research .The research is mostly aimed at finding out the personal and social factors that affect the acquisition of numeracy as well as the impact the public or popular perceptions of mathematics on a learner. The paper will look at some of the social and personal factors that might have an impact of the acquisition of numeracy. It will also look at the popular perceptions that influence a learner when it comes to studying mathematics.

Personal factors

There are several personal factors that might affect an individual's acquisition of numeracy one of them is a parent's education level. Parents are role models when it comes to the academic achievement of a person. Acquisition of numeracy is particularly influenced by the beliefs that are held by an individual's parents regarding mathematics. If parents have negative attitude towards mathematics then there is no way that they can offer positive encouragement to their children pertaining the subject. Dimakos, T & Spyros (2012) indicate that "The fourth factor is specified by the students' aspects, who state that the factor which influenced them more to do mathematics is composed by their father's and mother's influence. We could possibly name it: 'influence by the parents'." The education attainment of the parents plays a major role here, if the parents did not perform well in the subject then there is no way that they can create a home environment that will have positive impact on the learning as well as achievement of the children when it comes to numeracy acquisition

An individual's attitude towards the subject can also affect their acquisition of numeracy. If a person has a negative attitude towards mathematics there is no way they can perform well since they have no interest in the subject. They will often skip lectures, not do any takes given to them simply because they lack the motivation and interest in the subject. This will lead to little or no acquisition of numeracy by an individual. An individual might also lack arithmetic ability this includes skills like manipulation of their mathematics knowledge and concepts so as to transform their meanings and hence know how they can apply them. This ability enables a student to interpret, synthesize, analyze or even hypothesize the ideas of mathematics. Without this ability an individual's acquisition of numeracy can affected (White,2011).Motivation and concentration is also a very key factor when it comes to numeracy acquisition, this is because it requires a lot of reasoning, interpretations and coming up with solutions to problems using mathematics concepts. If a person lacks motivation and does not concentrate then they will not be able to understand anything that pertains to mathematics.

Public perceptions

Most people hold the belief that mathematics is basically computation. This has led to the public viewing mathematics as something very hard. This negative perception that the public has on mathematics can have an influence a learner. This is because many people value people's opinions. Therefore, if most people view mathematics as a very hard subjects then the mathematics learners will be influenced and put it in their minds that mathematics is a very hard subject. Due to this negative perception that is created the learners do not show any interest in mathematics and hence lack of understanding which leads to poor performance in the subject (Saritas, & Akdemir, 2009).

Conclusion

It should be noted that mathematics is not all about computation; computation in mathematics is just a tool that is used for understanding structures, the relationships and the patterns of concepts in mathematics. Therefore mathematics can be used to solve various life problems which are often complex. With a change in attitudes, beliefs and public perception there will be an increase in numeracy acquisition among many learners.