Improving Simple Arithmetic in 2nd

1
Improving Simple Arithmetic in 2nd 3rd Graders
By Dr. Steven Hecht, Kevin Vagi, Dan Whitney,
Kwok Au FAU Psychology In Collaboration with A.D.
Henderson School
Abstract This poster summarizes the gains that
students made on the simple arithmetic test in
response to 10 sessions of practice. Students
solved simple arithmetic problems for about 2
minutes per day for 10 days. We report how often
the children retrieved (or just knew) the
answers to simple addition and simple subtraction
(e.g., 2 3) problems. Retrieval usage was
measured during both a pretest and posttest.
Elementary students from 2nd and 3rd grades
(sample n 78) were tested. As expected,
practice increased the amount of simple
arithmetic problems that could be retrieved.
Results support previous findings (Jordan,
Hanich, Kaplan, 2002) in terms of showing that
relatively small amounts of practice lead to a
substantial increase in items recalled.

• Results
• Accuracy levels were consistently high (over
  80) regardless of strategy used. We found that
  the percentage use of retrieval for simple
  arithmetic problems substantially increased after
  the two weeks of practice (see chart below).

Method Participants 78 elementary school
children, 44 2nd graders and thirty-four 3rd
graders, from the A. D. Henderson school
participated. Procedure Participants were
administered a battery of mathematical and
reading tasks. Participants were a given pretest
and posttest . Both sessions were individually
administered, and involved solving simple
addition and subtraction problems. Participants
were given ten consecutive school days of
practice (2 minutes each day) solving simple
addition and simple subtraction problems. Each
pretest lasted approximately 45 minutes, and
post-testing lasted about 15 minutes. Lap-top
computers were used to administer the simple
arithmetic tasks so that accuracy, speed, and
strategy use could be measured on each problem
solved.
Future Research Future research is needed to
determine whether the results will
generalize to different ages of participants
(e.g. 4th through 8th grades) and different
kinds of math problems (e.g. simple
arithmetic multiplication, and harder arithmetic
problems, fractions). For example, can 10
sessions of practice solving fraction division
problems enable children to remember the correct
algorithm for solving problems of this type.
Also, we should determine whether the children
who participated in this study will
maintain their improved addition and subtraction
simple arithmetic skills. It is very
interesting to note that by the end of the 10
practice sessions, these 2nd and 3rd graders
showed similar rates of both accuracy and use
of retrieval as FAU undergraduate psychology
and biology students! Reference Jordan, N.
C., Hanich L. B., Kaplan, D. (2002). Arithmetic
Fact Mastery in Young Children A Longitudinal
Investigation. Journal of Experimental Child
Psychology, 85, 103-119.
Brief Description of Pre- and Post-test
Tasks 1. Simple Arithmetic- Students were given
22 addition problems (e.g., 23 ) and 22
subtraction problems (e.g., 3-2) to solve as
quickly as possible by answering into a computer
microphone. For each problem, amount of time
taken from presentation to solution, and reported
strategies (how they solved the problems), were
recorded. 2. Simple Arithmetic Practice tasks-
Students were given 18 simple addition and 18
simple subtraction problems to solve in two
minutes each day for 10 days.