Fostering fluency with basic addition and subtraction facts

Paliwal, Veena

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/44487 Copy

Description

Title

Fostering fluency with basic addition and subtraction facts

Author(s)

Paliwal, Veena

Issue Date

2013-05-24T22:17:58Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Baroody, Arthur J.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Baroody, Arthur J.

Committee Member(s)

• Lubienski, Sarah T.
• Walsh, Daniel J.
• Wang, Michelle Y.

Department of Study

Curriculum and Instruction

Discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• shortcut task
• subtraction facts
• addition facts

Abstract

The present study involved investigating knowledge and use of the addition-subtraction complement principle (if a + b = c, then c – b = a or c – a = b) by pupils in grades kindergarten to 3. Eighty-one children from three public schools serving a mid-western community participated in the study. Participants were assigned randomly to one of the three conditions: (a) structured training on the complement principle, (b) unstructured subtraction practice, and (c) structured training on a different topic (9 + 7 = ? can be answered knowing 10 + 7 = 17). A computational shortcut task was used to gauge participants’ understanding of the complement principle and their reliable use of the principle. The rationale for the task was that children who know a mathematical relation will use this knowledge to eliminate or minimize computational effort. The task entailed first presenting a “helper item,” such as 7 + 7 = 14 (or a “non-helper” item, such as 8 + 5 = 13), and then leaving it in view when a target problem such as 14 – 7 = ? was presented. Quantitative analyses revealed that the structured-subtraction group outperformed the comparison groups on knowledge of the complement principle and the efficient, appropriate, and adaptive use of the principle as a computational shortcut.

Graduation Semester

2013-05

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44487

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2013 Veena Paliwal

Owning Collections