The perceived use of mathematics in selected high demand occupations: Aligned with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards

This study examined patterns and frequency of use of mathematics reported by a sample of 306 workers in six selected occupations across Florida and compared these patterns to the mathematics called for in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1989).;Data collection was accomplished by a mailed-out survey instrument sent to a sample of 900 subjects. The instrument consisted of 56 questions measuring workers' perceived use of mathematics concepts and skills included in the fourteen NCTM standards related to secondary education. Each standard was queried using four questions. Sample stratification was based on one of two occupational clusters (business services and health services) and by educational level necessary for entry (high school, associate degree and bachelors degree).;Of 900 subjects surveyed, 306 valid surveys were returned, a 34% overall response rate. Reliability was measured using an alpha coefficient ranging from .885 to .999.;The responses included five levels of use, Daily (5), Weekly (4), Monthly (3), Occasionally (2) and Never (1). Responses to the four items for each standard were combined to determine a mean response.;The first research question addressed reported level of use for each standard. Data showed occasional-to-never use on six standards, occasional-to-monthly use on five, and never to weekly use on the remaining four standards. These findings would indicate that the NCTM standards have questionable alignment with the reported levels of use in the occupations used for this study.;The second and third research questions compared perceived occupational use of mathematics for each of the groups. A factorial ANOVA revealed significant interactions between educational level and occupational cluster, therefore a Dunn's post-hoc analysis was done. The results indicated differences in the reported use of mathematics in individual occupations for each standard. Nine standards had more than half the possible occupational interactions show significant differences.;These findings would indicate than workers in the two occupational clusters in this study perform mathematics skills and concepts use at different levels.