TY - JOUR
T1 - How training on exact or approximate mental representations of number can enhance first-grade students' basic number processing and arithmetic skills
AU - Obersteiner, Andreas
AU - Reiss, Kristina
AU - Ufer, Stefan
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by research grant 01 JG 0922 from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) . The authors wish to thank the student assistants that supervised the students and helped with data collection. We also would like to thank the teachers, students and their parents for participating and for the excellent collaboration.
PY - 2013/2
Y1 - 2013/2
N2 - Theories of psychology and mathematics education recommend two instructional approaches to develop students' mental representations of number: The " exact" approach focuses on the development of exact representations of organized dot patterns; the " approximate" approach focuses on the approximate representation of analogue magnitudes. This study provides for the first time empirical evidence for the specific effects of these approaches by implementing them in a highly controlled learning environment. 147 first-graders were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups that used an " exact" , an " approximate" , or both versions of the same computer game, or to a control group. Performance on tasks requiring exact or approximate number processing as well as achievement in arithmetic were measured before and after the intervention. Results show that performance improved on tasks related to the exact or approximate number aspect trained, but there was no crossover effect. Achievement in arithmetic increased for the experimental groups and tended to be higher after only exact or only approximate training. Implications for teaching and learning in the classroom are discussed.
AB - Theories of psychology and mathematics education recommend two instructional approaches to develop students' mental representations of number: The " exact" approach focuses on the development of exact representations of organized dot patterns; the " approximate" approach focuses on the approximate representation of analogue magnitudes. This study provides for the first time empirical evidence for the specific effects of these approaches by implementing them in a highly controlled learning environment. 147 first-graders were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups that used an " exact" , an " approximate" , or both versions of the same computer game, or to a control group. Performance on tasks requiring exact or approximate number processing as well as achievement in arithmetic were measured before and after the intervention. Results show that performance improved on tasks related to the exact or approximate number aspect trained, but there was no crossover effect. Achievement in arithmetic increased for the experimental groups and tended to be higher after only exact or only approximate training. Implications for teaching and learning in the classroom are discussed.
KW - Approximate number system
KW - Arithmetical competence
KW - Computer-based intervention
KW - Mental number representations
KW - Numerical development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84868644829&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2012.08.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84868644829
SN - 0959-4752
VL - 23
SP - 125
EP - 135
JO - Learning and Instruction
JF - Learning and Instruction
IS - 1
ER -