Conclusions

Following 4 weeks of focusing on Subtraction in Maths considerable gains were made by thiese children in both their ability in perfoming subtraction operations and in their attitudes towards subtraction.

At the beginning of the study, all of the children in the class were given a basic facts subtraction pre-test. The test was a school-wide test that contained 100 subtraction questions. The children were given 5 minutes to complete as much of the test as they could. The general expectation is that by the end of Year 2 the children should be scoring around 20 percent correctly on the test. At the end of the study the children were all re-tested. Significant improvements were seen in all of the target children's scores. The scores are detailed.

Child 1 pre-test 3% post-test 22%
Child 2 pre-test 13% post-test 23%
Child 3 pre-test 8% post-test 27%
Child 4 pre-test 0 post-test 20%
Child 5 pre-test 7% post-test 37%

In addition, the following questions were asked of the children:

Do you like subtraction?
Do you think subtraction is easier now than before we started using the computer to help us?
Do you prefer to use the computer to help you learn in Maths?

The following comments were noted:

" The computer make learning it fun"
"The computer makes take-aways fun"
"The computer makes take-aways cool"
"It is easier now because I have been practising on the computer"
"When I learned subtraction, I learned it on that soccer game. It is easier on my hands now"
"It is easier now than before, I like it more now than before"
"Taking-away is easier than adding now"

All children commented that they prefer to use the computer to help them learn maths.