Math Skills Research Articles

Teleneuropsychology intervention in phonological awareness for children with specific learning disorder with reading and mathematical difficulties

Specific learning disorder (SLD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 5–15% of school-aged children worldwide. Often, difficulties in reading (SLD-RD) and mathematics (SLD-MD) occur together. Deficits in phonological awareness (PA) have been identified as the common factor between the two difficulties. Intervention in PA has been shown to be effective in SLD-RD; however, it is not clear whether it is also effective in SLD-MD. Neuropsychological intervention is usually conducted face-to-face, but when the patient is in a remote location or during extraordinary situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic, tele neuropsychology (TeleNP) may be a suitable alternative. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a telerehabilitation program for PA to improve math skills in children with SLD-RD/SLD-MD. The study had an N-of-1 SCED design, and included six children aged 10–12 years with SLD-RD/SLD-MD. After four baseline measurements with an arithmetic verification paradigm, they were treated with TeleNP-PA. The effect on each participant was evaluated using visual analysis and the reliable change index. After the intervention, all participants showed improvement in arithmetic tasks, suggesting that the PA intervention had a positive influence on these skills.

ANALISIS KEMAMPUAN PEMECAHAN MASALAH MATEMATIS SISWA SMK PADA MATERI PELUANG DITINJAU DARI KEMAMPUAN AWAL MATEMATIS

This study was conducted to analyze the problem-solving ability of grade XII students of SMKN 2 Karawang for the 2023/2024 Academic Year in terms of their initial mathematical abilities. This research uses a qualitatively descriptive approach. The subjects consisted of six students who were selected representatively to represent each level of initial mathematical ability. Data was collected based on problem-solving ability tests and initial mathematical ability tests. The collected data were analyzed to evaluate students' problem-solving abilities in three categories: high, medium, and low math skills. Students who have high initial mathematical abilities manage to precisely meet all indicators at each stage of problem solving. Students with moderate initial mathematical ability still do not meet the indicators at all stages of mathematical problem solving. Students with low initial mathematical ability understand all indicators but do not apply them to every solution.

Money talks! The role of parents’ discussion of money for preschoolers’ math knowledge

Children’s participation in cultural, everyday practices and social interactions involving math and money can contribute to the development of their knowledge and skills in these domains. Further work is needed to uncover what features of these activities, such as aspects of the conversations that may occur (e.g., number and money talk), facilitate and/or are shaped by children’s understanding of money concepts and skills. The present study examined the extent to which parents engaged in conversations about numbers and money with their four-year-old children during pretend grocery play and the relations to children’s math skills. We found that talk about price labeling and exchanging currency or goods occurred most frequently and that money and number talk were not significantly related to children’s broader math skills. However, parents’ money talk was positively associated with children’s money-related math skills, and this association was driven by the co-occurrence of talk about money and numbers. Our results suggest that parent-child conversations in familiar contexts such as grocery shopping provide rich opportunities to discuss culturally relevant practices surrounding money and practice math skills in the context of monetary exchanges. Thus, it is critical to consider how existing family practices and everyday contexts support children’s early math learning.

English as A Second Language (ESL) and the Academic Performance of the Students towards English Proficiency Program

This dissertation examines the effectiveness and challenges of using English as a medium of instruction in secondary-level education in Bangladesh, with a focus on Math, Science, and English. The adoption of English as a medium of instruction has become popular in educational institutions such as English-version schools and public and private universities due to global demands for English proficiency. Employing quantitative research methods, this study investigates the gap in language acquisition among Bangla-speaking students who are taught in English despite their non-native background. It also addresses concerns about the potential loss of Bengali identity due to the prevalence of English instruction. The research examines the use of the first language (L1) and the target language (English) within English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. While L1 use can help students understand complex concepts and vocabulary, excessive use can hinder their exposure to the target language. The study analyzes the effectiveness of using English in ESL classrooms and students’ academic performance in English, Math, and Science subjects. Additionally, this research explores the challenges faced by teachers and students when implementing English as a medium of instruction. The historical association of English with colonialism has raised skepticism among Bengali speakers and questions about preserving their mother tongue. This study examines how this linguistic scenario affects classroom activities and learning outcomes. By examining the development of English language skills in Math, Science, and English subjects, this research aims to determine the effectiveness of the current medium of instruction in fostering proficiency in both language and subjects taught. The findings of this study provide insights into language policy and the medium of instruction in the Bangladeshi education system. The research can guide policy-makers and educational authorities in determining the most effective approach to balancing English as a medium of instruction with the preservation of Bengali identity and language. The study highlights the importance of considering language policy, teacher training, and curriculum design to create an environment that maximizes language acquisition and subject understanding while respecting Bangladesh’s cultural and linguistic heritage. Keywords: English as a medium of Instruction, Language acquisition in Bangladesh, ESL classroom, Academic performance, Language policy, Curriculum design

Application of Play Methods in Developing Early Math Skills during Learning from Home

Early mathematical ability is a basic ability possessed by children, the main problem in this study is the decline in early mathematical abilities of children aged 5-6 years in learning carried out from home with the play method at Umi Bina Mandiri PAUD caused by learning activities carried out from home. home so that children are less stimulated in early mathematical abilities. The purpose of this study was to obtain a description of information and data about children's activities, the role of teachers, and children's learning outcomes in early mathematics through the play from home method for children aged 5-6 years. This research uses a qualitative approach with a case study method. The data sources are the principal, 2 teachers and group B students. The results of the study (1) Children's activities in learning from home through the play method in developing early mathematical abilities seen from the implementation and responses show the success of teachers and parents in facilitating and assisting children in each lesson (2) The teacher's role in learning from home in planning, implementation, evaluation, support systems, and learning design, this can be seen from the teacher being able to make learning from home interesting and creative through the active play method. (3) The results of children's learning in developing early mathematical abilities through the play method during learning from home are seen from the results of observations of children who have developed as expected.

Using musical acoustics to motivate math learning

A course on musical acoustics, at the high school or introductory college level, can be an effective vehicle for improving student math skills. More importantly, it provides an opportunity to develop an appreciation for the utility of mathematics among skeptical students, including those from groups, such as women and minorities, who have historically been steered away from quantitative studies. Having an answer for the rhetorical “What is math good for?” can boost a student's motivation for learning math and open the door to consideration of STEM careers. This presentation gives an overview of how math skills are explicitly addressed throughout a 10-week (one quarter) general education course, “Physics of Musical Sound,” taught at Central Washington University. Examples of specific in-class exercises will be described, as well as how math is incorporated into collaborative term projects. A discussion will be provided of what has worked, and not worked, throughout 25 years of teaching this course.

AI maths skills get a Star Trek boost

AI maths skills get a Star Trek boost

Long-term abacus training gains in children are predicted by medial temporal lobe anatomy and circuitry.

Abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) is a widely used educational tool for enhancing math learning, offering an accessible and cost-effective method for classroom implementation. Despite its universal appeal, the neurocognitive mechanisms that drive the efficacy of AMC training remain poorly understood. Notably, although abacus training relies heavily on the rapid recall of number positions and sequences, the role of memory systems in driving long-term AMC learning remains unknown. Here, we sought to address this gap by investigating the role of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system in predicting long-term AMC training gains in second-grade children, who were longitudinally assessed up to fifth grade. Leveraging multimodal neuroimaging data, we tested the hypothesis that MTL systems, known for their involvement in associative memory, are instrumental in facilitating AMC-induced improvements in math skills. We found that gray matter volume in bilateral MTL, along with functional connectivity between the MTL and frontal and ventral temporal-occipital cortices, significantly predicted learning gains. Intriguingly, greater gray matter volume but weaker connectivity of the posterior parietal cortex predicted better learning outcomes, offering a more nuanced view of brain systems at play in AMC training. Our findings not only underscore the critical role of the MTL memory system in AMC training but also illuminate the neurobiological factors contributing to individual differences in cognitive skill acquisition. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We investigated the role of medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system in driving children's math learning following abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) training. AMC training improved math skills in elementary school children across their second and fifth grade. MTL structural integrity and functional connectivity with prefrontal and ventral temporal-occipital cortices predicted long-term AMC training-related gains.

Large language models as tax attorneys: a case study in legal capabilities emergence.

Better understanding of Large Language Models' (LLMs) legal analysis abilities can contribute to improving the efficiency of legal services, governing artificial intelligence and leveraging LLMs to identify inconsistencies in law. This paper explores LLM capabilities in applying tax law. We choose this area of law because it has a structure that allows us to set up automated validation pipelines across thousands of examples, requires logical reasoning and maths skills, and enables us to test LLM capabilities in a manner relevant to real-world economic lives of citizens and companies. Our experiments demonstrate emerging legal understanding capabilities, with improved performance in each subsequent OpenAI model release. We experiment with retrieving and using the relevant legal authority to assess the impact of providing additional legal context to LLMs. Few-shot prompting, presenting examples of question-answer pairs, is also found to significantly enhance the performance of the most advanced model, GPT-4. The findings indicate that LLMs, particularly when combined with prompting enhancements and the correct legal texts, can perform at high levels of accuracy but not yet at expert tax lawyer levels. As LLMs continue to advance, their ability to reason about law autonomously could have significant implications for the legal profession and AI governance. This article is part of the theme issue 'A complexity science approach to law and governance'.

Trusting Talent: Cross-Country Differences in Hiring

This article argues that a society’s level of social trust influences employers’ hiring strategies. Employers can focus either on applicants’ potential and select on foundational skills (e.g., social skills, math skills) or on their readiness and select on more-advanced skills (e.g., pricing a derivative). The higher (lower) the social trust—people’s trust in their fellow members of society—the more (less) employers are willing to invest in employees and grant them role flexibility. Employers in higher-trust societies are therefore more attentive to applicants’ potential, focusing more on foundational skills than on advanced skills. We empirically test this theory by using a novel dataset of more than 50 million job postings from the 28 European Union countries. We find that the higher a country’s social trust, the more its employers require foundational skills instead of advanced skills. Our identification strategy takes advantage of multinational firms in our sample and uses measures of bilateral (country-to-country) trust to predict job requirements, while including an instrumental variable and fixed effects on country, year, employer, and occupation. These findings suggest a novel pathway by which social trust shapes employment practices and organizational strategies.

Development of inhibitory control in Head Start children: Association with approaches to learning and academic outcomes in kindergarten

Inhibitory control (IC) and Approaches to Learning (AtL) are two critical domain-general indicators of school readiness that develop rapidly in early childhood and are associated with children's academic outcomes. IC undergoes rapid developmental changes between the ages of 3 and 5, and more studies are needed to examine this change over time. AtL describes how children learn in a classroom, and as such, it may mediate the relationship between IC and academic outcomes. AtL may mediate the relationship between IC and academic achievement for children; growth in IC supports children's ability to direct attention to teachers and peers during interactions, while AtL helps children persist and seek learning opportunities during interactions. Using the Age 3 cohort from the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 (FACES 2009), a latent growth curve analysis was used to examine how both the initial level and growth of IC in HS years to kindergarten were associated with children's academic outcomes in kindergarten as well as the potential mediational role of AtL. The intercept and slope of IC were found to predict children's abilities in AtL, language, and math scores in kindergarten. Moreover, AtL was identified as a mediator between the development of IC and the subsequent gains in math skills from Head Start to kindergarten. These findings underscore the significance of fostering IC development before children enter kindergarten, with AtL emerging as a crucial factor influencing their achievements in mathematics.

Immigrant selectivity at school entry

AbstractImmigrant educational selectivity—immigrant parents' educational attainment relative to their peers who did not migrate—is associated with better schooling outcomes for children at later stages of the educational pipeline in the United States. Less is known, however, about its influence on early education‐related outcomes. Using Early Childhood Longitudinal Study data from three different cohorts and quantitative analyses, I examine the relationship between immigrant selectivity and school readiness at school entry (proxied through math skills and approaches to learning evaluations). I find that immigrant selectivity is positively associated with school readiness, but it does not generate a widespread immigrant advantage at school entry, contrary to findings related to schooling outcomes later in the schooling pipeline. Notably, among most Asian groups, immigrant selectivity partly accounts for school readiness advantages compared to their White peers with native‐born parentage, whenever they emerge. By contrast, accounting for immigrant selectivity reveals the full extent of the immigrant disadvantage at school entry among most Latino groups. These results suggest that immigrant selectivity is an important factor in shaping racial/ethnic stratification early in the schooling pipeline.

Developing Ethnomathematical-Based Learning Stages on Mathematical Communication Skills with Kastolan Error Analysis

Ethnomathematics-based learning has been effective for students' mathematical communication skills, but it can still be optimized by minimizing common student errors. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to analyze the shortcomings of students to solve mathematical communication problems in terms of students' skill categories; 2) analyze the learning process based on ethnomathematics with the help of the geoGebra application; 3) Develop learning steps based on ethnomathematics, analysing the shortcomings of the students. The study subjects were courageously selected, i.e. 36 students from the IX semester of the 2023/2024 academic year. Data were obtained through reported math skills, interest questionnaires, observation sheets, and dialogue sheets. Data analysis techniques begin with data analysis, testing students' mathematical communication skills, analyzing qualitative data, interpreting research results, and analyzing quantitative data. According to the analysis of the errors made by the students in solving mathematical communication problems, in terms of the categories of student ability, the students made more procedural errors in the categories of medium and low skills. At the same time, students in the high-ability category tend not to make significant mistakes. The results of the triangulation found two stages of learning necessary to minimize student errors, i.e., the exercise stage and the research stage. The stages of ethnothematic learning are exploration, mapping, explanation, exercise, research, and reflection. The effectiveness of the learning model developed in the mathematical communicative skills of the students will be analyzed for future research.

Heterogeneity of Interactive Learning Media Outcomes for Improving Mathematical Competence: A Systematic Literature Review

This study analyzes how using interactive learning media affects math skills in different educational levels: elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. We used the Systematic Literature Review method, looking at 90 studies published between 2014 and 2023. These studies focused on how interactive learning media influences math understanding, problem-solving, communication, representation, and connections. We included all relevant school levels in our research. Our main questions were about how interactive learning media impacts students' math skills, considering factors like the school year, education level, and the number of students. The results of our analysis show a significant increase in research on this topic over the past ten years. Specifically, more studies focused on high school and college students, and larger groups of 30 or more students were common in these studies.

Thematic ethno-based learning math skills in ethnomathematics-based learning

Thematic ethno-based learning math skills in ethnomathematics-based learning

The benefits of math activities depend on the skills children bring to the table.

Playing board games and other math activities can provide young children with opportunities to develop their math skills. However, it is critical to understand for whom these activities may be most beneficial. In two studies, we examine the extent to which foundational cognitive skills moderate the effects of playing math games on math skills. In Study 1, we look cross-sectionally at the association between parents' frequency of math activities with their 3- to 4-year-old children (N = 124) and children's math achievement, examining the extent to which children's skills moderate this relation. We find that frequent math activities are only associated with better math performance for children with better number knowledge. In Study 2, we test this experimentally by randomly assigning parents and children (N = 76) to play with a number-related board game, an active control board game, or a business-as-usual control group. Controlling for number knowledge, inhibitory control, and vocabulary at pretest, no differences in math skills at posttest were observed between the training groups. However, a significant interaction emerged between training group assignment and number knowledge, such that children with higher pretest number knowledge had higher posttest math scores when assigned to the number board game condition compared to the two control conditions, but no differences among conditions were seen for children with lower number knowledge. Collectively, these findings suggest that math activities may be most beneficial for math skills when children have stronger number knowledge and underscore the need for tailoring activities to children's current skill level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Implementasi Model Pembelajaran Kooperatif Tipe Make A Match Untuk Meningkatkan Kemampuan Problem Solving Matematika Siswa

This study was motivated by the low mathematics problem-solving ability of seventh-grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Belimbing Hulu. The purpose of the research was to improve students' math problem-solving skills by using Make-A-Match Cooperative Learning Model. The research used a qualitative descriptive approach with a form of classroom action research consisting of two cycles. The research instruments used were problem-solving ability test questions, observation sheets, questionnaires, and documentation. Based on the results of research and data processing from 22 students, the percentage of students' math problem-solving completeness increased from cycle I to cycle II, namely 59% to 100%, these results show that students are able to achieve the average. The increase in students' math problem-solving ability from cycle I to cycle II obtained an average of 67 to 83, these results indicate that the level of students' math problem-solving ability is in the high category. Furthermore, students' responses to the Make-A-Match Cooperative Learning Model were in the excellent category with an average student score of 80. So it can be concluded that the Make-A-Match Cooperative Learning Model can improve the mathematics problem-solving ability of seventh-grade students.

Training Executive Functions Within the Mathematical Domain: A Pilot Study with an Integrated Digital‐Paper Procedure in Primary Second‐Grade

AbstractInterventions targeting cognitive control processes, such as Executive Functions (EF) have recently been experimented to enhance early math skills. This pilot study explored the feasibility and effectiveness of an intervention integrating EF activities into the mathematical domain among second‐grade students. One hundred and four typically‐developing‐children were assigned to either a group that underwent the intervention (Trained Group; n = 58) or a group that continued with daily didactic activities (Control Group; n = 46). The training lasted for 8 weeks and included both home‐based digital and school‐based paper activities. According to teachers' feedback, the intervention was highly appreciated by children and compatible with classical school curricula. The Trained Group improved in behavioral self‐regulation, math abilities and problem‐solving in comparison to the Control Group. Notably, within the Trained Group, benefits of the training were higher in children with high working memory. This training offers a model to support math learning in primary school, considering inter‐individual differences in EF.

Teaching Mathematics based on Integrating Reading Strategies and Working Memory in Elementary School

This study strived to determine the effectiveness of integrative teaching of reading strategies and working memory on basic math and problem-solving skills. It is a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study carried out on 50 second-graders from Chahashk Shandiz village in the academic year of 2020-2021 who were randomly selected by cluster sampling and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The intervention was performed by cellphone software through virtual education in two steps. The experimental group underwent integrative training for 20 sessions, but the control group did not receive any intervention. Colored Progressive Matrices (1956) and a researcher-made story problem-solving and arithmetic skills test were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and one-way multivariate analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the integrative teaching of reading strategies and working memory enhanced the basic math skills, with an effect size of 0.67 in second-grade elementary students (P<0.001). According to the results, integrative teaching improved students' problem-solving skills but did not affect their skills in arithmetic operations. Therefore, second-grade elementary teachers can use this method to enhance their story problem-solving skills. Keywords: integrative teaching, reading strategies, working memory, basic math skills

Parent-Focused Interventions to Support Children’s Early Math Learning

Even before starting formal schooling, children show substantial variations in math skills suggesting that the home learning environment plays an important role in shaping young children’s math skills. Here, I review interventions aimed at providing young children with opportunities to learn math at home to identify what types of parent-guided activities may be effective at improving young children’s math. I also review interventions that may impact the frequencies and quality of the learning opportunities that parents provide to their children even if benefits for children’s math outcomes were not found or have not been tested yet. While some studies show that parent-guided math activities can impact children’s math skills, future work should carefully consider for whom interventions are most effective as both child and parent characteristics such as children’s general cognitive skills or foundational number skills as well as parents’ attitudes toward math may impact the effectiveness of the interventions.