According to Skills for Success, numeracy is “your ability to find, understand, use, and report mathematical information presented through words, numbers, symbols, and graphics.” Building the skill of numeracy is an important part of navigating your world, especially today when there is so much information present and being able to interpret and analyze it is important. In this article, we will go over some of the components of numeracy and key frameworks that can help with building this skill. 

Component 1: Identify the task that will require you to use numeracy

One of the reasons that people struggle with math is that they don’t know when to apply it. Understanding when a specific objective calls for math is important. This helps you avoid over-engineering (using math when it isn’t necessary) or under-engineering (avoiding math when it’s needed). Here is a great framework that you can use to recognize when mathematics is the suitable tool for a task: 

• Measurability: Can the problem be expressed in quantities? 
• Abstraction Suitability: Can the problem be simplified into a model without losing information that matters?
• Tractability: Is the problem solvable or analyzable mathematically in the sense that there are known mathematical tools (such as statistics, calculus, logic), the necessary information is available, and the problem is computationally feasible?
• High-Stakes Precision: Are errors costly, such as in finance, medicine, or engineering? Do small changes have a big impact? Do all decisions need to be defensible and reproducible? 

Component 2: Identify the mathematical information

When you are scanning a problem, it’s helpful to identify mathematical information, details, or concepts. There is a framework that can help you do this called SCOPE. 

• Structure: Structure is about looking for relationships between elements. 
• Comparison: Comparison is about looking for things that are more/less, faster/slower, riskier/safer, better/worse, and you often see this expressed as ratios or trade-offs.
• Optimization: Optimization is about looking for things that need to be made into the “best.” This includes maximizing or minimizing things. 
• Prediction: Prediction is about forecasting. Whenever you need to forecast something, you’re looking at trends, time series, and statistical interference.
• Encoding: Encoding is about formally representing information. It points to things like logic and set theory. 

Component 3: Make connections between related pieces of mathematical information

Consider George Pólya’s math problem solving strategy: 

1. Understand the Problem
2. Devise a Plan
3. Carry out the Plan
4. Look Back

Step 1: Understand the Problem

This is about identifying what is known and unknown, recognizing any conditions, restating the problem in your own words, and drawing a diagram or defining the variables. 

Step 2: Devise a Plan

This is about looking for patterns, writing out equations, and finding a simpler, related problem to start. 

Step 3: Carry Out the Plan

This is about executing on the plan that you laid out in Step 2: Devise a Plan. If one approach isn’t working (such as looking for patterns), try another approach (such as writing out equations). 

Step 4: Look Back (Reflect)

This is about reviewing what you’ve done in order to ensure accuracy. You can do this by plugging your result back into the original problem. Once you have the answer, you can also evaluate your approach to see if there was a simpler way to solve the problem. You can also assess whether you can apply this approach to other problems. 

Component 4: Apply mathematical operations and tools you will need to answer the question

There are different mathematical tools and operations that you can apply to your work: 

• Ordering and sorting
• Measuring
• Estimating
• A combination of different methods

Component 5: Interpret and evaluate the information

How can you assess the validity of data that’s presented? 

When you’re assessing data, you need to assess it against a few key dimensions: 

• Accuracy: Does the data reflect the real world as it is right now?
• Completeness: Are there any missing values or fields?
• Consistency: Is the data the same across different datasets and systems?
• Conformance: Does the data follow defined standards?
• Plausibility: Does the data make sense, e.g. Is there an order date for some point in the future?
• Uniqueness: Are there any duplicates?

Component 6: Share the mathematical information, results and implications

You can communicate your findings, results, or implications through different means including a presentation, through a written report, using a diagram, using a map, or using a graph. 

Numeracy Skills Can Help You Understand the World and Its Problems in Precise, Systematic Ways

Numeracy skills can feel overwhelming and even pointless to learn, especially when you can’t immediately see the connection to the real world. But when you start thinking about math as “the language of the universe” you can start to become excited about the new modes of thinking language can introduce.