Date of Award
10-17-1991
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Teaching & Learning
First Advisor
Deanna Strackbein
Abstract
Purpose. The main purpose of the study was to determine whether or not systematic instruction in mental computation would improve fourth grade students' written problem solving and computational abilities. Another purpose was to determine if gender would account for differences in problem solving and arithmetic computational ability among subjects of the control and experimental groups of the study, as determined by pre- and post-testing.Procedure. Pre- and post-tests were administered to control and experimental groups. The control group and experimental group subjects were fourth grade students from two elementary schools in an upper midwestern community of approximately 7,200. There were 51 students in the experimental group and 44 in the control group.Pre-tests were administered to the experimental and control groups in early September, 1990. The experimental group was given systematic instruction and practice in mental computation (5-10 minutes per day) five days a week for eight weeks. The control group did not receive instruction nor have practice in mental computation during this time. At the end of the research study post-tests were administered to the experimental and control groups.Findings. The major findings of this study are summarized below: (1) A significant difference favoring the experimental group was found between the post-test scores of the experimental group and the control group in written problem solving and arithmetic computational ability. (2) Females who had systematic instruction in mental computation improved more than the other groups in written problem solving and arithmetic computational ability as revealed by a comparison of pre- and post-test means. (3) Significant differences among the groups ability in written problem solving and arithmetic computational ability were found to exist. (4) It was found that gender by itself did not account for differences in written problem solving and arithmetic computation ability among the study participants.
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Gary William, "The effect of systematic instruction in mental computation upon fourth grade students' arithmetic problem-solving and computation ability." (1991). Theses and Dissertations. 7699.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/7699