Developing computation

The Australian Government commissioned the Tasmanian Department of Education, the Catholic Education Office (Tasmania) and the Association of Independent Schools of Tasmania, in partnership with the University of Tasmania, to explore the effects of the introduction of informal written computation methods to school students. Aims of the project were to investigate the effects of strategies that encouraged the use of informal written computation on students’ number sense and computational ability; to determine which strategies were most successful; and to examine the implications that fostering of informal written calculation methods have for the teaching of formal written algorithms.

Following the completion of the project, it was found that student performance in mental computation had improved, and that students had increased confidence in mental computation. Teachers expressed their increased confidence in the effectiveness and value of mental computation, work on informal written computation methods, and the delaying of formal written algorithms. They also agreed on the benefits of developing informal written methods as a bridge between mental and formal written methods. The project was funded under the Australian Government’s Numeracy Research and Development Initiative.

Electronic version only available from the Department.  Print copies may be available for loan from your local library.

• Full report:  download PDF    (1.0 MB, 60 pages)
• Brochure:  download PDF    (2.1 MB, 58 pages)