From what works to scaling up: improving mental strategies in South African grade 3 classes
Askew, MikeORCID: 0000-0003-0826-461X, Graven, MellonyORCID: 0000-0002-8021-3959 and Venkat, HamsaORCID: 0000-0002-6453-1623
(2022)
From what works to scaling up: improving mental strategies in South African grade 3 classes.
In: 45th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME45), 18-23 July 2022, Alicante.
This paper shares results from a national ‘familiarisation trial’ of a mental
mathematics intervention focused on assessing and encouraging strategic calculation
methods with Grade 3 students in South Africa. Successful smaller pilots refined the
intervention into 6 foci and this paper draws on assessment results from the four
provinces that trialled one focus: adding and subtracting using jump strategies.
Findings from pre- and post- test results of 1379 students show statistically significant
gains in both the fluencies underlying calculating strategically and in items assessing
strategic competency. The results indicate that scaling up this model into national
implementation is feasible, and that the intervention package can support
improvements in mental mathematics learning outcomes