Evaluation of an In-Service Arithmetic Program

Abstract

RESEARCH of the past fifteen years has indi cated the advantages to be gained from teaching mathematics meaningfully at the elementary school level1. This research has generally pitted an ex perimental group against a control group where the experimental group teachers were furnished with lesson plans and step-by-step instructions, or with intensive training in how to teach a specific facet of mathematics with which the experiment was concerned. Experiments of this type have typically been short in duration. However, the results of testing for retention have generally es tablished the efficacy of teaching arithmetic mean ingfully. Research of the nature described above has left several important questions unanswered: Can teachers in-service be taught to teach all phases of the mathematics curriculum meaningfully? Can they apply the principles of meaningful teaching in their own arithmetic instruction? Will children in their classes develop a greater knowledge and un derstanding of arithmetic concepts and processes? Or, to state these questions in the general case: Will the instruction of teachers in the principles of teaching mathematics meaningfully be trans lated into classroom teaching that results in a greater growth of arithmetic knowledge and skill? The purpose of this study was to determine if an in-service program where first-grade teachers were exposed to spaced instruction in the mean ingful teaching of arithmetic would result in great er arithmetic achievement by the children in their classes. The nature of the study provided the opportu nity to obtain evidence pertinent to some concom itant but subsidiary questions relevant to the learning of arithmetic.