Author(s)

Dina Hassidov

Talpiot College of Education, Holon, Israel.

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.

(3-5) Achievement in Mathematics, Boys and Girls (Gender), Teaching Method—Alternative and Frontal, Learning in a Computer-Assisted Environment, Elementary School

Hassidov, D. (2019) 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. Creative Education, 10, 1425-1443. doi: 10.4236/ce.2019.107105.