ABSTRACT
The National Numeracy Project published by the DfEE (1998) produced a number of positive responses from different subject areas. Schools involved in the pilot project noted ‘staggering’ results, with improvement figures of up to 9 per cent for Key Stage 2 (7–11-year-olds) (Rafferty 1997). Whilst this project was focused through the core subjects of English, maths, and information and communication technology, it is clear that the National Numeracy Strategy will be of vital importance in many other subjects, such as geography (Davidson et al. 1998) and science. Although there appears to be a general lack of confidence in numeracy throughout the general public, this lack is perhaps not so evident in teachers of science, almost all of whom will have had some mathematical training, irrespective of their degree specialism in science.
