Page 177 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

Mathematics is a crucial but complex process with various factors influencing its learning and teaching. The research reported on here aimed to shed light on the roles of various child and teacher factors in the mathematical development of a large number of fourth grade children and to explore the effectiveness of using dynamic math interviews to identify and better meet their math learning needs. The two main research questions were thus as follows.
1) How can children’s mathematical development, specifically their arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem-solving, be predicted from child and teacher factors?
2) To what extent does the use of dynamic math interviews facilitate the identification of the math learning needs of children, promote teachers’ mathematics teaching and promote children’s mathematics learning?
In this final chapter, the empirical results of the present research are summarized and discussed, the strengths and some possible limitations are pointed out, and some suggestions for future research are offered. In closing, the implications of the research outcomes for actual educational practice are discussed.
Child predictors of mathematical development
In Chapters 2 and 3, the outcomes are reported of the studies examining the predictive roles of cognitive factors, math-related beliefs, and math-related emotions on children’s mathematics achievement by the end of grade 4 and their mathematical development during the course of grade 4.
With regard to the influences of specific cognitive factors, both the levels of arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem-solving achievement at the start of grade 4 contributed substantially to the children’s mathematical development during fourth grade. This was the case for both of the studies presented in Chapters 2 and 3, respectively. And the finding is in line with what we expected on the basis of other research. Children’s mathematical development is clearly facilitated when a sufficient foundation has been laid and the
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Summary and general discussion
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