Primary Students' Mental Computation: Strategies and Achievement

Several studies have documented students' approaches to mental computation. Few, however, have explicitly linked strategy use to success or otherwise on mental computation tests. As part of the evaluation of a mental computation program in one primary school, students in Years 3 to 6 undertook pre- and post-tests of mental computation to measure performance and growth over time. Interviews were conducted with twelve of these students, three from each grade. The findings indicated that students who were procedural in their approach were less successful on the pre-test but generally showed growth on the post-test, following a strategy-based intervention. The implications of these findings are discussed.