A Fresh Start - The Moser Report, 1999

This is one of many Harvard references to useful online references for the Level 5 Maths ADTLLS, Developing Role of Numeracy / History of Mathematics essay. (Part of Module 1: Approaches to Mathematics learning and teaching). The retrieval date is when I first used it.

Moser, C. (1999), A Fresh Start. London: DfEE. Retrieved on 31 December 2008 from http://www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/mosergroup/

(Now available at: http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/moser1999/moser-report.html)

Here’s how I used the reference in my maths essay:

By the end of the 20th century, numeracy skills appear to have worsened. Despite the extensive and optimistic recommendations of the Cockcroft report, Moser, almost 20 years later, reported that nearly half of all adults had numeracy skills below those expected of an 11 year old: one in four could not work out the change required from £2.00 when buying items costing £1.13, and one in three could not calculate the area of a room even with a calculator (Moser, 1999, 2:9 and 1:4). The report, commissioned to analyse the basic skills of adults in England, stressed the need for improved numeracy provision and instigated huge changes: the introduction of adult numeracy standards and a curriculum, free educational provision for adults working up to Level 2, new assessment methods and extensive staff training.

Moser attributed the scale of need to four main causes: patchy adult provision, lack of motivation, little publicity for adult learning programmes and, above all, poor schooling (1.8-1.11). However, for the first time in a government report, Moser placed some of the responsibility for training and improving basic skills on the employer (8.16-8.18).