TITLE:
How Teaching Method (Alternative/Frontal) Affects Achievement in Mathematics for Boys and Girls in Grades Four to Six Who Are Learning in a Computer-Assisted Environment
AUTHORS:
Dina Hassidov
KEYWORDS:
(3-5) Achievement in Mathematics, Boys and Girls (Gender), Teaching Method—Alternative and Frontal, Learning in a Computer-Assisted Environment, Elementary School
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.7,
July
11,
2019
ABSTRACT: A comparison
of teaching methods in mathematics (frontal vs. computer enhanced and/or other
alternative methods) in two urban elementary schools (479 students; grades 4 - 6;
total 18 teachers) indicated that a significant difference in the achievement
of the students resulted from the latter method, particularly for girls in the
case of answering word problems. Follow-up studies corroborated the findings,
indicating that the teaching method is a decisive factor in student achievement
in math and that enhancing teaching with computer practice is of prime
importance. This study’s basic assumption is that there will be a correlation
between the teaching method (alternative or frontal) in the mathematics class
in primary schools were mathematics learning is computer assisted and the
pupils’ achievements in mathematics. This led to study the relationship between
pupils’ progress in various types of mathematical word problems, and the
teaching method by which they were taught, and in correlation to the factors of
pupils’ age (grades 4 - 6), gender, and initial level of mathematical knowledge
(poor, average, advanced). The results showed that the alternative teaching
method clearly led to higher achievements overall but especially so for word
problems in the case of girl, which in fact demonstrated the highest progress
of all the factors studied. The results were corroborated in the region-wide
government-administered tests given two years after the initial data
collection. The study thus shows that the teaching method used in the
mathematics classroom is a central and extremely influential factor in pupils’
progress in mathematics and shows the importance of fully coordinating the
teaching in the classroom with the mathematical activities on the computer. The
results point to an urgent need to fully coordinate classroom instruction with
the computer activities, something that is vital in any situation where
learning is amended with computer work.