The Continuous Research on Mathematical Attainment at Primary School Level (II) : Analysis on the Two-year's Mathematical Progress of Two-Cohort Children

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Other Title
  • 算数達成度に関する継続的調査研究(II) : 2つの児童集団の2年間の変容

Abstract

The continuous research on mathematical attainment is a part of the International Project on Mathematical Attainment (IPMA) in which such countries as Brazil, Czech Republic, England, Hungary, Holland, Ireland, Japan, Poland, Russia, Singapore and USA are participated. The aim of this project is to monitor the mathematical progress of children from the first year of compulsory schooling throughout primary school and to study the various factors that could affect the progress, with the ultimate aim of making recommendations at an international level for good practice in the teaching and learning of mathematics. In Japan, the total of eight different public primary schools have agreed to participate in the project. We asked all two-cohort children and their classroom teachers from these schools to be involved and to take mathematical attainment tests for six years. At the present we have carried out three tests, i.e. Test 1, Test 2 and Test 3 to both the about 500 children of first cohort and the about 440 children of second cohort for two years. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the data of these tests, investigate children's progress of mathematical attainment and compare two-cohort children's progress in order to find out some suggestions for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics at these primary schools. In our previous paper (Koyama et. al., 2002), according to the percentage of correct answer to each test item, we made such categories as high [H], medium [M] and low [L] attained items. We defined the fixity of mathematical attainment such that for three tests if a child's changing pattern of correct (1) or incorrect (0) on an item is [1→1→1] or [0→1→1] then the child's mathematical attainment on the item is fixed. As a result of analysis in terms of these categories and the fixity of mathematical attainment, we found out the followings. First, there were five different types of [H→H], [M→H], [L→M] and [L→L] based on the progress of each some test item from test 1 to test 2 or from test 2 to test 3. For example, the type of [H→H] means that for those test items in this type children had done well at the first test and did so at the second test a year later. The type of [L→H] means that for those test items in this type children had not done well at the first test and became to be well at the second test a year later. It reflects a positive effectiveness of the teaching and learning of mathematics for one year. As a result of comparative analysis by using these types, we found it common to two-cohort children that the teaching and learning of mathematics at the first grade was more effective than that one at the second grade in these schools. Second, as a result of comparative analysis in terms of the fixity of children's mathematical attainment, we found it common to both cohorts children that four items in test 1 were insufficiently fixed among children and suggested that more efforts should be made in the teaching and learning of mathematics related these items. As a final result, we can identify there is a very similar tendency in the progress of two-cohort children's mathematical attainment for two years. It could be interpreted as a reflection of the similarity in the practices of teaching and learning of mathematics at eight primary schools for two years. We could say that such similarity would be a characteristic of the teaching and learning of mathematics in Japan.

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Details 詳細情報について

  • CRID
    1390564238066280192
  • NII Article ID
    110009498498
  • DOI
    10.24529/jasme.9.0_163
  • ISSN
    24333034
    13412620
  • Text Lang
    ja
  • Data Source
    • JaLC
    • CiNii Articles
    • KAKEN
  • Abstract License Flag
    Disallowed

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