Numbers pervade our daily lives, but they are often overlooked — whether intentionally or not. Choosing to see and use numbers to understand the world around us is the first step toward practical numeracy.
Covey's Habit 1
Be Proactive.
Key Questions
Why is this a numbers situation?
What role do numbers play in this situation?
Mathematics per se typically values exact answers, leading many to underestimate the value of estimation. Rounding and ballparking make for simpler number tasks that our "lazy brains" are more likely to tackle. Estimation beats avoidance, every time.
Covey's Habit 2
Begin With the End In Mind.
Key Questions
How necessary would exact numbers be here?
How could rounding help to interpret the situation?
Real-world numbers are only as good as their source. Especially in experimental data, surveys, and polls, the numbers themselves are the products of a series of choices and assumptions made prior to their measurement. And every choice not only includes options, it excludes others.
Covey's Habit 3
Put First Things First
Key Questions
Where did these numbers come from?
What choices and assumptions were made beforehand?
Not everyone will understand numbers the way you do. By expressing each key observation in multiple modes — using tables, graphs, prose, and (where appropriate) formulas — you not only reinforce your own understanding but make it more accessible to others with different learning preferences.
Covey's Habit 4
Think Win/Win.
Key Questions
How could this be communicated differently, using tables, graphs, words, or equations?
Which mode makes your point clearest?
Numbers possess profound rhetorical power. But like all rhetoric, their impact is limited by the extent to which they are presented in an audience-appropriate way. Meeting your audience at their comfort level is a must for effective numerate communication.
Covey's Habit 5
Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood.
Key Questions
What skill level is needed to understand these numbers?
Is this an appropriate skill level for my audience?
The numbers of life don't come in disciplinary packages. Effective numeracy means that an economist can communicate with an artist, and a physicist with a political scientist. Reaching across these boundaries and seeking perspective from outside your "expert blind spot" gives both you and your interlocutor a chance to gain perspective.
Covey's Habit 6
Synergize.
Key Questions
How might someone outside your field approach this differently?
How might their perspective help you see this differently?
Numeracy is a lifelong journey, and the key to staying numerate is to consistently challenge yourself with new number situations. More practice makes you more efficient, and the sharper your skills, the more access you have in today's highly-skilled workforce.
Covey's Habit 7
Sharpen the Saw.
Key Questions
How could this example challenge you to extend your knowledge?
What questions does it raise that it doesn't answer, and how might you investigate them yourself?
Common Places
Where can numeracy make a difference in your life? Almost anywhere: number skills are increasingly important in our personal, professional, and public lives.
Click on one of the following examples to show/hide its activity panel at right.
Personal Place
The decision of whether to buy or rent housing generates much water-cooler debate. In the end, however informed the decision is, it can be quite personal.
Professional Place
Business, industry, and education have become increasingly data-driven. As educators, how can we (fairly) make sense of an ever-expanding body of data on ourselves and our system?
Public Place
Chevy Chase's President Ford famously said in a mock presidential campaign: "It was my understanding that there would be no math in the debates." But data is democratic, especially in the information age. In an arena already prone to selective interpretation, are numbers informing — or misinforming?
Activity Channel
Select a Common Place at left to show/hide its activities below.
Housing: Buy or Rent?
Objective: Decide whether renting or buying a home is better for you.
This interactive tool from The New York Times depicts the homebuyer's situation versus the renter's graphically.
Stay Sharp: Suppose you plan on living in your next home for 10 years. In your area, what proportion of rental costs to purchase costs would make renting a better choice?
Assessing Public Education
Objective: Balance claims about public education performance.
This blog post by the Center for Public Education is a direct response to one of Stossel's claims: that student achievement is flat since the 1970s despite ever-increasing per-student costs.
James Terwilliger and Milo Schield show in this AERA report that confounding reversals occur more frequently than you might expect in state-by-state NAEP comparison data.
Stay Sharp: The phenomenon illustrated here is known as Simpson's Paradox. How does it work — that is, what creates the conditions under which disaggregated data can tell the opposite story as the overall data?
Income Inequality
Objective: Decide how to address wealth inequity in the U.S.
Michael Norton and Dan Ariely's study in Perspectives on Psychological Science, highlighted in the PBS show, measures American citizens' perspective on wealth distribution in the U.S.
CNN's John Sutter traces the recent history of income inequality in the U.S. and looks at a variety of ways it can be measured, including calculus' Gini index.
Stay Sharp: Is Paul Solman's "Freedonia," in which every quintile of the population holds an equal 20% share of wealth, the most fair? Is it even achievable?
