How numerate are you? Do you prefer to do calculations on paper, or with a calculator? You can join the Dutch National Numeracy Survey – 'het Groot Nationaal Rekenonderzoek' (in Dutch) – and learn more about your arithmetic skills and strategies. For this project the national science council in the Netherlands NWO, and Dutch media organizations NTR and VPRO have teamed up with the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam, Leiden University, the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University. Jan Karel Lenstra from CWI is involved as an expert in mathematics. The project started in spring 2012 and will end in the autumn, when the results will be made public in the tv program Labyrint. The results of this project are important for arithmetic education. Thanks to this survey, there will also be more attention for arithmetic and mathematical research in the Netherlands.
In everyday life we often count without even noticing it: when the train is delayed, when we pay for groceries and when we are playing card games – counting is vital. There are many questions that are still open: what impact had education on our arithmetic skills and strategies? Do Flemings count differently from the Dutch? Which factors have impact on disorders like dyscalculia? The goal of this National Numeracy Survey is to collect many of these data from people of all ages. Participants can anonymously login on a website to play math games, learn more about themselves and improve their arithmetic skills. “You even might discover your own hidden math talent!", Jan Karel Lenstra adds.
The researchers that participate in this project are: Jan Karel Lenstra, CWI Fellow and former director of the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) – the national research centre for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands, Han van der Maas, professor of Psychological Methods at the University of Amsterdam, Edward Cokely, psychologist at the Michigan Technological University, Brenda Jansen, developmental psychologist at the University of Amsterdam and as a researcher specialized in fear of arithmetic, and Marian Hickendorff from Leiden University, who investigates arithmetic strategies of children and cooperates in this survey with Kees van Putten and CITO, a leading testing and assessment company.
More information
- How to join? (in Dutch)
- Making an account (in Dutch)
Source:Wetenschap24
Picture of an abacus made by John Evans, UK (SXH.hu)
