Second, the idea of teaching “numeracy across the curriculum” emphasises that
numeracy is more than mathematical knowledge and that students learn best when “the
richness of a context helps them to make sense of mathematical ideas” (Willis, 1998, p. 8).
This is closely allied to the previous point as students who tackle mathematics in restricted
contexts will be likely to develop limited cognitive structures (Coles & Copeland, 2002).
The importance of embedding mathematical learning in a range of contexts was underlined
by Morony, Hogan, and Thornton (2004):