Remedial Arithmetic after Two Years

Abstract

A common method of overcoming some of the weaknesses of mass education is to provide remedial instruction for pupils who are definitely below the average level and who do not seem to be making progress. There are two opposed views as to the effectiveness of such remedial work: some hold that it brings the pupils?at least those who are sufficiently intelligent ?up to a level of accomplishment which will enable them to continue with their group; others believe that pupils can proceed only at the rate of their own individual growth no matter what pedagogical pressure is employed. The latter view, of course, assumes that the environment provides the oppor tunity for this growth, and that the individual organisms are motivated to satisfy their needs from the environmental supply. The effectiveness of remedial instruction whether in reading, arithmetic, or other school subjects, can be determined only by longitudinal studies of pupil progress under typical school conditions. To make such a study the following procedure was adopted. The schedule was so shifted that a group of 18 pupils in a twelve-teacher elementary school in an industrial com munity were placed in a remedial class in arithmetic. These 18 were chosen from a group of 35 who had been designated by their teachers as needing remedial work. The 35 were given the Dearborn Diagnostic Test, Form A, in January, 1937. From the results the teacher who was to give the remedial instruction selected those pupils who were most retarded, and yet were high enough in intelligence as measured by the Otis Quick Scoring Test in Mental Ability to make a successful outcome seem tentatively probable. Of these, 18 were in Grade 6A, and were therefore going on to the junior high school at the end of the semester; so it was decided to confine the remedial work to them. They were taught arithmetic computation exclusively by an experienced teacher, and at the end of the semester (June, 1937) they were again given the Dearborn Diagnostic Test, Form B being used. The atmosphere of the class and the motivation were excellent. The pupils did not feel it was a dumb bell class; rather, since they were soon going on to the junior high school, they were being given an opportunity 443