Page 46 - Children’s mathematical development and learning needs in perspective of teachers’ use of dynamic math interviews

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Chapter 2
The composition of the classes varied: 66% homogeneous (all fourth grade); 34% heterogeneous (combination of two grades in one class). The mean age of the teachers was 38;1 (years; months) (range of 24 to 60 years) with 16% male and 84% female. The majority of the teachers had a bachelor’s degree in education (66%); 28% had additional graduate training; and 6% had a Master’s degree in education. The teachers had an average of 11.9 years of experience (SD = 8.7) (range of 2 to 39 years).
Of the 610 children, 53% was male and 47% female. The age of the fourth graders ranged from 8;2 to 10;10 with a mean of 9;2 (SD = 0.31). The wide spread in age was due to either having skipped a year or having stayed behind a year. The home language for 88.5% of the children was Dutch.
The children’s non-verbal reasoning was tested using the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM). It was checked that none of the children scored two or more standard deviations below the mean (Raven, 2000; Raven et al., 1998). None of the children did. The mean nonverbal reasoning score for the children was 36.64 (SD = 7.43), skewness -0.86, kurtosis 1.51.
Measurement instruments
Mathematics achievement
Children’s mathematics achievement was measured using two instruments: a test of arithmetic fluency (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and a test of advanced mathematical problem-solving (fact and word problems).
Arithmetic fluency. The Speeded Arithmetic Test (TTA; De Vos, 2010) is a standardized paper-and-pencil test frequently used in Dutch and Flemish education to measure speeded arithmetic skill (arithmetic fluency). The test consists of four categories of 50 fact problems: addition (tasks with a difficulty level varying from 6 + 0 to 29 + 28), subtraction (difficulty level varying from 4 – 2 to 84 – 38), multiplication (difficulty level varying from 4 x 1 to 7 x 9), and division (difficulty level varying from 6 : 2 to 72 : 9). Children are given two minutes per category of problems. Each correct answer yields one point, for 50 possible points