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COVID-19 and Numeracy: How about Them Numbers?
- Source :
- Numeracy: Advancing Education in Quantitative Literacy; 2020, Vol. 13 Issue 2, p1-17, 19p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Quantitative efforts to understand the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic need to be viewed through the lens of social construction. I begin by comparing the efforts to quantitatively measure the plague in London in 1665. Then I develop five propositions for studying the social construction of statistics: (1) facts are social constructions; (2) measuring involves making decisions, (3) counting is not straightforward; (4) all comparisons involve choices; and (5) social patterns shape numbers. After examining how these propositions affect what we know about COVID-19, I consider their implications for moving beyond mathematics when approaching numeracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- COVID-19
COVID-19 pandemic
NUMERACY
DECISION making
PATTERNS (Mathematics)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19364660
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Numeracy: Advancing Education in Quantitative Literacy
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 147933768
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.13.2.1361