It is as if the designers of the curriculum were stuck in the notion that practice is the application of theory and will follow naturally when a person is well grounded in theory. It is a language, a discourse, and a set of practices. Mathematicians and journalists operate primarily with descriptions. Managers, sports professionals, and coaches operate primarily with practices. Engineers, scientists, doctors, and lawyers deal with both.
Quantitative literacy concerns a student's familiarity with numbers and numerical manipulations.
Indeed, much of the university curriculum in these disciplines is organized to help students learn these practices. For this reason, college and university faculty are concerned that students enter with experience in basic quantitative practices. The foregoing analysis strongly suggests that we need to look differently at the role of quantitative literacy in education. We need to reframe the question, focusing not on quantitative literacy but on quantitative practices. Peter J. Denning is associate dean for computing and chair of the computer science department at George Mason University.