Page 89 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

Role of executive functioning in mathematical development
The Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices were administered at the start of the school year in order to check on participants’ non-verbal reasoning, to ensure that none of the participants had scores 2 or more standard deviations below the mean (Raven, 2000; Raven et al., 1998). None of them did. The mean non-verbal reasoning score found for the children at the beginning of fourth grade (N = 450) was 36.58 (SD = 6.99), skewness -0.73, kurtosis 1.37. The sample was treated in accordance with institutional guidelines as well as APA ethical standards.
Procedure
After recruitment of participants, an information meeting was organized in two different regions of the Netherlands. During the meeting, the schools were presented both verbal and printed information about the purpose of the study, duration of the study, and data collection methods to be used. The parents of the recruited children were provided information about the study by the school. Both the schools and the parents provided their written consent for participation of the children prior to data collection.
The Cito (Dutch national standardized mathematics test) mathematics achievement data were obtained from the schools. Measures of arithmetic fluency (start grade 4) and non-verbal intelligence (start grade 4) were administered in class using paper and pencil. The children sat in a test setup so they could not copy from each other. The first author gave test instructions and stayed in the classroom. The teacher also remained in the classroom. The testing took about 45 minutes, excluding a short break between the administration of the two measures.
The executive functioning of each child (visuospatial and verbal updating, inhibition and shifting in combination with inhibition) was tested individually in a quiet room in the child’s school by an educational psychologist (i.e., the first author) at the start of grade 4.
Baseline measure (start grade 4) and outcome measure (end grade 4)
Mathematical problem-solving. The children’s criterion-based mathe- matics test performance at the end of grade 4 was adopted as the outcome measure. Standardized Dutch national tests are commonly administered at the middle and end of each school year to monitor
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