FUNA (Functional Numeracy Assessment) is a project aimed at developing digital tools for assessing the development of mathematical skills and learning difficulties on an individual level. The focus is on the assessment of functional numeracy i.e. the ability to use basic mathematical skills in everyday life. FUNA consists of two kinds of tasks: some are developed to screen for learning difficulties while others can be used to assess mathematical skills.
Learning mathematics is not a process that is independent from other skills. Therefore FUNA also consists of tasks and questionnaires that can be utilised in assessment of other skills that support learning of mathematics. Factors taken into account include reading and cognitive skills, as well as attitudes and emotions towards studying, mathematics, and reading.
FUNA is being developed for the assessment of children and young people in Finnish and Swedish. Assessment tools in other languages will also be developed with international FUNA partners. In Finland, the development is spearheaded by the researchers in University of Turku, University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi.
FUNA consortium supports open science & research collaboration and in this spirit we are expanding the FUNA expert community continuously. It is not a commercial product but outside use in research we may have to charge a fee based on incurred costs.
FUNA tests have been developed into ViLLE – a browser-based learning platform developed by Turku Research Institute for Learning Analytics.