Conclusions

Before we started our research project we gave the children a school wide subtraction basic facts test. This involved them answering as many subtraction questions as possible in 5 minutes. The expectation is that the children will be able to score 20% by the end of year 2. Before our work with the subtraction games the targeted children achieved very low scores. These scores then improved when we tested them again. Every child in the two groups that I targeted improved although some improved more than others.
Below are the results from the test. The first number next to each child's initial is the score that they had before the work on subtraction games, the next number is the score that they achieved after the subtraction work:

A: 5%-10%
B: 2%-4 %
C: 8%-13 %
D: 1%-5 %
E: 6%-8 %
F: 12%-25%
G: 6%-17 %
H: 15%-37%

At the end of week 4 I had a discussion with the children in the two groups about the work that we had done on the computer. Two children said that they still didn't like subraction but the other childen said that they like it now. The children decided as a group that subtraction is "sometimes easy and sometimes hard." When I asked them if they felt that the computer had helped them four children said that it had helped "a bit" and four children said that it had helped "a lot."