Literacy and Numeracy: Personal Development Plan

A new prospect by the Australian government will have new teachers who have graduated from university undergo a literacy and numeracy test to show that they are at a competent level to teach students. Students leaving university will be required to place in the top 30% to pass. EDU114 is a current course at the University of the Sunshine Coast which is helping aspiring teachers to get ready for life in the classroom. In this course, one of our tasks is to form a personal develop plan to help us achieve our goals to pass the literacy and numeracy test in 4 years. I have undergone four practice literacy tests and four practice numeracy tests. Below are my results and my personal development plan to help me lift my results to become a successful and competent teacher.

Literacy was done first so I will examine my results for these test first. I have averaged out all my results for the four tests to make them easier to analyse then broken the tests down into sections. These sections are: spelling, punctuation, grammar, comprehension and total score. My total score for the four tests averaged out to be 70.5. If we are to assume that anything over 70 would be top 30% then I have just scraped in. The main section holding me back has been comprehension with a low score of 59 while my best scoring section was grammar which was 78. Spelling and punctuation were 67.5 and 76.5 respectively. If I am to improve on these numbers one of my goals is to move my comprehension score from a 59 to a 75 by the end of the second semester. To do this I will be keeping a reading journal by my side when I read books, whether it be recreational or for study. By keeping a reading journal and taking notes, it will force me to absorb what I am reading rather than just taking in words. By handwriting in a journal, it forces me to use the correct spelling without the help of auto correct on the computer which will also improve my spelling. By repeating this same test in 8 months’ time, it will give me a greater understanding of my improvement in all areas while at the same time being a long enough time for me not to remember the answers.

My numeracy test was very poor compared with my literacy test. My total score was only 54.25 with my lowest score coming in at 36.75 for written arithmetic. The other two scores were written data at 52 and mental arithmetic at 68.5. As you can see, none of these scores are anywhere near sufficient to get in to the top 30%. My goal for numeracy is similar to my literacy goal but instead of just focusing on one section like comprehension, my goal is to redo the test at the end of the second semester and have my total score at 75. To do this, I will be getting help from an outside source known as the Khan Academy. The Khan Academy has been recommended to me by other students who needed help in their math classes. It takes you through problems, ideas, solutions, graphs and anything you need help with and explains slowly so you can understand. By using this site each week and methodically going through their format for learning, I will improve my mathematics knowledge and be able to check my mathematics knowledge at the end of the year.

The literacy and numeracy tests that the Australian government is implementing are designed to make sure educators are in the top 30% of Australians for literacy and numeracy. These test are a way to make sure that our students are only receiving correct information. After reviewing my tests in literacy and numeracy I can see that I have a bit of a way to go until I am ready to teach. However, with my goals in place I believe that I will be able to reach the top 30% by the end of my university degree. I look forward to the end of the year where I can test myself again and check my progress, after which I can reset my goal posts and aim higher for next time.