174
Mathematical literacy is an individual’s capacity to reason mathematically and to formulate,
employ, and interpret mathematics to solve problems in a variety of real-world contexts. It
includes concepts, procedures, facts and tools to describe, explain and predict phenomena.
It assists individuals to know the role that mathematics plays in the world and to make the
well-founded judgments and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective 21st
century citizens.
22. The PISA 2021 framework, when compared with the PISA 2003 and PISA 2012 frameworks,
while appreciating and preserving the basic ideas of mathematical literacy developed there,
acknowledges a number of shifts in the world of the student which in turn signal a shift on how to
assess mathematical literacy in comparison to the approach used in previous frameworks. The
trend is to move away from the need to perform basic calculations to a rapidly changing world
driven by new technologies and trends in which citizens are creative and engaged, making
judgements for themselves and the society in which they live.
23. As technology will play a growing role
in the lives of students, the long-term trajectory of
mathematical literacy should also encompass the synergistic and reciprocal relationship between
mathematical thinking and computational thinking, introduced in (Wing 2006
2
) as “the way
computer scientists think” and regarded as a thought process entailed in formulating problems and
designing their solutions in a form that can be executed by a computer, a human, or a combination
of both (Wing 2011
3
). The roles computational thinking play in mathematics include how specific
mathematical topics interact with
specific computing topics, and how mathematical reasoning
complements computational thinking (Gadanidis, 2015
[9]
; Rambally, 2017
[10]
). For example, Pratt
and Noss (2002
[11]
) discuss the use of a computational microworld for developing mathematical
knowledge in the case of randomness and probability; Gadanidis et al. (2018
[12]
) propose an
approach to engage young children with ideas of group theory, using a combination of hands-on
and computational thinking tools. Hence, while mathematics education evolves in terms of the tools
available and the potential ways to support students in exploring the powerful ideas of the
discipline (Pei, Weintrop and Wilensky, 2018
[13]
), the thoughtful use of computational thinking tools
and skill sets can deepen the learning of mathematics contents by creating
effective learning
conditions (Weintrop et al., 2016
[14]
). Moreover, computational thinking tools offer students a
context in which they can reify abstract constructs (by exploring and engaging with maths concepts
in a dynamic way) (Wing 2008
4
), as well as express ideas in new ways and interact with concepts
through media and new representational tools (Grover, 2018
[15]
; Niemelä et al., 2017
[16]
; Pei,
Weintrop and Wilensky, 2018
[13]
; Resnick et al., 2009
[17]
).
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