An arithmetical word problem-solving intervention for disadvantaged French kindergarten children

Previous research has shown the importance of conducting early interventions in mathematics in disadvantaged children. Solving arithmetical word problems is a field in which children particularly fail. In this study, preschoolers from disadvantaged French public schools ( n  = 101; M age  = 5–6) wer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEuropean journal of psychology of education Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 3185 - 3211
Main Authors Croset, Marie-Caroline, Caudron, Sébastien, Mondelain, Laure, Zaher, Ahmed, Chaachoua, Hamid, Mazens, Karine
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Arithmetic
Children & youth
Education
Educational Psychology
Learning
Mathematical problems
Mathematics education
Pedagogic Psychology
Problem solving
Semantics
Subtraction
Teaching
Word Problems (Mathematics)
Priority education
Finger patterns
Problem-solving
Kindergarteners
Preschool mathematics instruction
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Summary:Previous research has shown the importance of conducting early interventions in mathematics in disadvantaged children. Solving arithmetical word problems is a field in which children particularly fail. In this study, preschoolers from disadvantaged French public schools ( n  = 101; M age  = 5–6) were taught strategies for using fingers to solve arithmetic word problems and compared with a control group. The intervention consisted of collective rituals based on learning finger patterns and 7 sessions spread over 4 weeks, for about 20 min, focusing on explaining how to use the fingers to solve problems. The results showed that the intervention has a significant post-test impact on the targeted transformation problem-solving skill and that children with lower performances in problem-solving at the pre-test benefited more from the intervention. The intervention also indirectly benefited the other problem-solving skills. However, there was no intervention effect on the arithmetic addition task. Our research highlights that an intervention focused on the explicit teaching of finger strategies for problem-solving can be successfully implemented into ecological learning contexts, especially in disadvantaged areas.
ISSN:0256-2928
1878-5174
DOI:10.1007/s10212-024-00861-2