Understanding of Numeracy Skills

Kellie Sciacca
Student number: 13894018
EDC 145 SP4
Assessment 3

Introduction
Early understanding of numeracy skills such as counting, sorting and
classification, is an integral skill that children need to have in order to
understand basic counting and numeracy (Beverley, Hughes & Hastings,
2020). It is a foundation for beginning numeracy, children should be able to
sort and classify the resources that they are counting, for example,
counters, blocks, animals, shapes.
This essay will discuss the basis of understanding early numeracy
composition. It will furthermore briefly discuss early numbers and place
value and the mathematical and pedagogical content knowledge relating to
these two numeracy skills. In conclusion the essay will outline various links
in the curriculum that supports the area of mathematics.
Early Number’s
Mathematical Content Knowledge (MCK)
Children start their learning mathematics before they start their elementary
school. The basic skills need to be enhanced between the children.
Mathematical content knowledge is very much essential in the fields of
teaching. As this helps in determining the best process that is needed for
teaching the children efficiently. It is important to ensure that the
mathematical concepts are made clear among the minds of each kid. The
most fundamental concept that is related to number is to understand the
whole concept of numeracy (Charalambous et al., 2019). It becomes
essential to understand the concept of numbers at an early stage
effectively so that it becomes easy to mathematical concepts. With the help
of proper mathematical knowledge it becomes easy to decide whether the
two set of numbers are same or not. Children need to be made aware
about the way maths needs to be calculated. This helps in shaping the
concept of numbers. The child must have the potential to perceive the
knowledge that has been taught to them. Once they gain complete
knowledge it becomes easy to count the sets of numbers. While teaching
the student regarding numeracy it is important to keep in mind the
important principles that are needed for carrying out the maths. This
includes one to one principle, stable order, and cardinal, abstraction, and
order irrelevance.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)
Pedagogical content knowledge is referred to the integration of subject
expertise and skilled knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge is
considered as an important factor while providing instructions in the
classroom. This includes understanding the approach with which the
numbers concepts are discussed with the members. The key steps that are
associate with providing proper teaching towards the children includes
encouraging the contact between the faculty members and students. With
a better communication between the students and staff it becomes easy to
clear the knowledge (Gess-Newsome et al., 2019). Early number concept
helps in providing better concept about the maths. With the help of
numbers several functions can be carried out. Thus it can be stated that
there is a need to ensure that the selected method is suitable for teaching
the children. Everyone should have clear knowledge regarding the

numbers. The pedagogical content knowledge helps in providing a better
understanding towards the subjects without any misunderstanding. This
ensures that the content is easily accessible by the students. Teaching
needs to be done properly so that it becomes easy to manage the
performance. This also offers a greater way of using the authentic
assessment approaches. Numbers needs to be identified at the early
stage so that it becomes easy to manage the mathematical.
There are several of features that are included in the pedagogical content
knowledge. All the features are developed for providing the students a
proper learning facility. One of the important feature is the combining
content and pedagogy (Iserbyt, Ward & Li, 2017). The pedagogical content
knowledge is considered as combination of the pedagogy and content. The
next feature is the understanding student perception. In this aspect the
pedagogical content knowledge needs a proper understanding regarding
the approach point of the student in reference with the subject being taught
to them. Another feature is deciding the difficulty of a subject. The teachers
who are having a good pedagogical content knowledge must be having
proper understanding of the subject regarding which parts are difficult and
which part are easy.
Place Value
Mathematical Content Knowledge (MCK)
The basic concept is that teachers should have adequate amount of knowledge
in those content areas for which they have been hired. They need to have a deep
understanding especially in case of mathematics that includes the procedures as
well as the concepts. Mathematical content knowledge is required to be able
teach it to others. The knowledge of the content will help in clearing the
concepts of others. In case of mathematics, content knowledge includes the
procedures, concepts and the mathematical processes as well that are necessary
to make use of mathematics. A teacher’s capability to provide relevant solutions
to various problems by making use of different methods comes under the
purview of this (Sears, 2016). The way a pedagogue adapts himself to different
contexts is evaluated in this. The ability of an individual to make use of
reasoning and other proofs for investigating conjectures as well as evaluating
mathematical arguments are included in mathematical content knowledge.
Individuals should be able to make use of algebraic reasoning and relate to
various other topics in mathematics. In this context, understanding the concepts
of place value will provide the foundation for various operations with the number
system specifically whole numbers. The knowledge of the content of place value
will help the teachers to explain the same to the students. The basic concept of
place value is that it is the value which is represented by a specific digit in a
number and this depends on the digit’s position in that number.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Pedagogical content knowledge includes a teacher’s ability to make use of
content knowledge. This knowledge requires a teacher to make use of his
knowledge to properly unwrap different topics of mathematics and present the
same in such a way that students learn the same properly. Pedagogical content
knowledge also considers an individual’s capability to make use of his content