Mental Calculation Methods Used By 11-Year-Olds in Different Attainment Bands: a reanalysis of data from the 1987 APU survey in the UK |
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| Authors: | Derek Foxman Meindert Beishuizen |
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| Institution: | (1) London University Institute of Education (DF), 59 Minster Road, London, NW2 3SH, England;(2) Leiden University, the Netherlands (MB), Abel Tasman Place 6, 2253 KA Voorschoten, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | This paper describes thereanalysis of data obtained in 1987 on themental calculation strategies used by asample of 11-year-olds
in the course of anational survey of schools in England,Wales and Northern Ireland. The mentalskills test was administered
to pupils in aone-to-one situation and the reanalysismade use of classifications of mentalstrategies developed in the past
decade ininternational research. These pupils werea subsample of the main sample of about 10000 who took a written test of
mathematicsin the survey, 247 taking both tests. Thescores on the written test were used todistribute these pupils into three
bands ofattainment in order to compare thefrequency and effectiveness of thestrategies used by pupils of differentlevels of
attainment. Eight of thereanalysed questions are discussed, each ofthem involving one of the four basicarithmetic operations.
Some are purelynumerical and in others the numbers are ina context. Top band pupils mostly preferredsequential strategies
which leave one ofthe numbers in the calculation complete,while the Bottom band generally preferredto split complete numbers
and operateseparately on the components of the numbersthus partitioned. The most popularstrategy for Middle band pupils in
severalquestions was the standard algorithm usedmentally. Complete number strategies werethe most successful for pupils in
all threebands. Possible implications for theNational Numeracy Strategy in Britain arediscussed.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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| Keywords: | addition attainment bands children's mental strategies context division mental calculation multiplication subtraction |
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