Abstract
A comparison of teaching methods in mathematics (frontal vs. computer enhanced and/or other alternative methods) in two urban elementary schools (479 students; grades 4 - 6; total 18 teachers) indicated that a significant difference in the achievement of the students resulted from the latter method, particularly for girls in the case of answering word problems. Follow-up studies corroborated the findings, indicating that the teaching method is a decisive factor in student achievement in math and that enhancing teaching with computer practice is of prime importance. This study’s basic assumption is that there will be a correlation between the teaching method (alternative or frontal) in the mathematics class in primary schools were mathematics learning is computer assisted and the pupils’ achievements in mathematics. This led to study the relationship between pupils’ progress in various types of mathematical word problems, and the teaching method by which they were taught, and in correlation to the factors of pupils’ age (grades 4 - 6), gender, and initial level of mathematical knowledge (poor, average, advanced). The results showed that the alternative teaching method clearly led to higher achievements overall but especially so for word problems in the case of girl, which in fact demonstrated the highest progress of all the factors studied. The results were corroborated in the region-wide government-administered tests given two years after the initial data collection. The study thus shows that the teaching method used in the mathematics classroom is a central and extremely influential factor in pupils’ progress in mathematics and shows the importance of fully coordinating the teaching in the classroom with the mathematical activities on the computer. The results point to an urgent need to fully coordinate classroom instruction with the computer activities, something that is vital in any situation where learning is amended with computer work.
Highlights
Less than 60% of students in Israel achieve a passing mark in math in elementary school, and only a small percentage of high school students graduate with a proper understanding of science and math, despite recent technological developments in education (Harari, 1992)
A comparison of teaching methods in mathematics in two urban elementary schools (479 students; grades 4 - 6; total 18 teachers) indicated that a significant difference in the achievement of the students resulted from the latter method, for girls in the case of answering word problems
The results showed that the alternative teaching method clearly led to higher achievements overall but especially so for word problems in the case of girl, which demonstrated the highest progress of all the factors studied
Summary
Less than 60% of students in Israel achieve a passing mark in math in elementary school, and only a small percentage of high school students graduate with a proper understanding of science and math, despite recent technological developments in education (Harari, 1992) This aligns with international data that shows a decline in math and science studies, especially in remote and underprivileged neighborhoods (Harari, 1992). Children in underprivileged areas do not normally have access to appropriate (or state-of-the-art) educational resources, and teachers who teach in underprivileged areas often do not have proper training (Reznitskaya & Gregory, 2013) The lacuna of such children, who lack school preparation and are deficient in perception, speech, sorting, abstraction, reading, and conceptual abilities, gradually increases with time, often resulting in failure to graduate. The former is much less likely to access computer-assisted learning: about 32% of students in affluent schools participate in computer-assisted learning compared to only 17% of underprivileged students (Sutton, 1991)
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