Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemPredictors of performance in arithmetic in the middle years of primary school( 2002)While the amount of research into difficulties in mathematics has increased markedly over recent years there continues to be a need for more research into mathematics in the middle years of Primary School. The present study examined the extent to which performance on various maths related processing tasks (e.g. reading numbers, reading number statements, mental arithmetic) and measures of maths understanding (e.g. numeration and counting) predicted maths computation ability as determined by performance on typical Year 3-5 un-timed pen and paper arithmetic tasks. Analysis consisted of a stepwise regression for each of the three year levels. Some of these tasks were found to be highly predictive of achievement in arithmetic. The multiple regression was not only significant at each of the three year levels but accounted for a substantial proportion of achievement criterion variance: Year 3: 61%, Year 4: 59.8% and Year 5: 61.5%. Achievement in arithmetic was best predicted by a combination of factors at each year level with some similarities occurring across levels. The most striking of these is Mental Arithmetic: multiplication which was found to be a predictive factor at all three levels. Other significant predictive factors included Mental Arithmetic: subtraction (Year 3), Numeration: tens of thousands (Years 3 & 4), Processing of 4-digit numerals (Years 4 & 5), and Mental Arithmetic: addition (Year 5).
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ItemEvaluating the foundations for teaching arithmetic CD-ROM: linking theory and practice( 2005)Lack of mathematical content knowledge (MCK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and the ability to translate this knowledge into practice are recognised as major issues for pre-service teacher education today. Multimedia has been suggested as a way of facilitating the transfer of MCK and PCK to the classroom. In this context the Foundations for Teaching Arithmetic (FTA) CD-ROM was developed in 2001. The aim of this study is to evaluate how pre-service teachers in the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne have used FTA, if at all, to improve their MCK and PCK and to support the translation of these into practice. Also under investigation is what conditions facilitate or obstruct student use of FTA as a self-help resource in improving pre-service teachers' conceptual understanding of, and confidence in, their ability to do and to teach mathematics. Questionnaires designed to find out why students did or did not use FTA and their rating of particular features of the resource were completed by 389 students in various education courses. Forty-four student users and non-users of FTA were interviewed individually or in focus groups about their experience of FTA and the factors that contributed to their decisions to use or not use it. The impact of these factors was determined through the development of a framework which mapped the action profile of each student. A four phase needs-based progression model was proposed to explain the factors which contributed to students being able to make the successful translation of PCK on FTA into practice. The design and content of FTA facilitated students' use of FTA for the purposes under investigation. Factors hindering student use of FTA did evolve from the content of FTA, but were attributed to circumstantial factors.