Gender differences in mathematics strategy use (original) (raw)
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Gender Differences in Arithmetic Strategy Use: A Function of Skill and Preference
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2001
This study was designed to examine whether first-grade boys' use of retrieval and first-grade girls' use of manipulatives reflected gender differences in their abilities to use these strategies or gender differences in preferences for strategy use. Eighty-four first-grade students, 42 boys and 42 girls, from two suburban elementary schools participated in this study. The children solved basic arithmetic problems under two conditions: a free-choice condition in which they were allowed to solve the problems any way they preferred and a game condition in which the children's strategy use was constrained so that all children used the same strategies on the same arithmetic problems. Strategy use during the free-choice session replicated the findings of earlier research indicating that girls tend to use strategies utilizing manipulatives and boys tend to use retrieval. During the game condition, when we controlled the types of strategies children used on different problems we found that boys were as able as girls to calculate solutions using manipulatives. Girls, however, were not as capable as boys in their retrieval of answers to arithmetic problems from memory. No differences were found in error rates or speed of retrieval. Gender differences were found in the variability of correct retrieval, with boys being significantly more variable than girls.
Investigations in Mathematics Learning, 2011
Gender differences in the strategies elementary school children use to solve multidigit addition and subtraction story problems that require regrouping are investigated in two studies. Study 1 replicates the Fennema and colleagues (1998) study by reexamining previously published data on 72 children's addition and subtraction solution strategies. Study 2 extends previous findings by identifying the reasons for 70 third-grade children's strategy preferences. Gender differences in strategy use, although significant, were not as strong as those reported by Fennema and colleagues (1998). But the reasons boys and girls gave for choosing particular strategies suggests that the sources of these differences might be important and there are different understandings of what it means to learn and do mathematics. Results support the hypothesis that early gender differences in strategy use influence later gender differences in problem solving performance that appear in middle school and continue throughout high school.
Individual Differences in Children’s Early Strategy Behavior in Arithmetic Tasks
Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2013
As demonstrated by the Overlapping Waves Model (Siegler, 1996), children's strategy use in arithmetic tasks is variable, adaptive, and changes gradually with age and experience. In this study, first grade elementary school children (n = 73), who scored high, middle, or low in a standardized scholastic mathematic achievement test, were confronted with different arithmetic tasks (simple addition, e.g., 3 + 2, simple subtraction, e.g., 7-2, and more advanced addition, e.g., 7 + 9) to evoke different calculation strategies. Video analysis and children's self-report were used to identify individual strategy behavior. In accordance with the Overlapping Waves Model, children in all achievement groups showed variable and multiple strategy usage and adapted their behavior to the tasks of the different categories. We demonstrated that not only low achievers differed from normal achievers but also that high achievers exhibited a unique pattern of strategy behavior in early mathematics.
2014
random sample of 192 male and female elementary school students, grades 1-3, were chosen to study the development of problem solving strategies using the Test of Individual Differences in Children's Addition Strategy Choices. The results of the study were consistent with the basic assumption of Adaptive Strategy Choice Model (ASCM) and revealed that Iranian children also used multiple strategies to solve simple addition problems. As children became older and acquired more experience in problem solving, they discovered new strategies, the accuracy and speed with which each strategy was executed increased. In addition, retrieved answers to problems from long-term memory came to be used more and the relative frequencies of the use of backup strategies varied. No significant differences were found between boys and girls in speed, accuracy and strategy use. Although the results indicate that the pattern of strategic development in Iranian children is similar to the pattern of children in other countries, the results also reveal that Iranian children differed considerably in the distribution of strategy choices.
Gender Differences and Cognitive Correlates of Mathematical Skills in School-Aged Children
Child Neuropsychology, 2009
Published information concerning the influence of gender on mathematical ability tests has been controversial. The present study examines the performance of school-aged boys and girls from two age groups on several mathematical tasks and analyzes the predictive value of a verbal fluency test and a spatial test on those mathematical tasks. More specifically, our research attempts to answer the following two questions: (1) Are gender differences in mathematical test performance among children interrelated with age and (2) do verbal and spatial nonmathematical tests mediate gender effects on mathematical test performance? Two hundred and seventy-eight 7- to 10-year-old children and 248 13- to 16-year-olds were selected from schools in Colombia and Mexico (231 boys and 295 girls). The age effect was found to be significant for all measures, with scores improving with age. Results showed that boys and girls in both age groups scored similarly in most subtests, but that differences emerged in the performance of mental mathematical operations and in resolving arithmetical problems. In the latter - but not in mental math - older boys outperformed older girls, whereas no gender differences were observed in the younger groups. After controlling for age, it was found that the spatial test was, indeed, a significant mediator of gender effects, while the verbal task was not.
Sex differences in math performance: The role of children's approach to schoolwork
Developmental Psychology, 2006
This research examined whether the tendency for girls to outperform boys in the classroom is due to differences in how girls and boys approach schoolwork. In 5th grade and then again in 7th grade, children (N ϭ 518) reported on how they approach schoolwork (i.e., achievement goals and classroom behavior), their learning strategies, and their self-efficacy in math; math grades and achievement test scores were also collected. Girls were more likely than boys to hold mastery over performance goals and to refrain from disruptive classroom behavior, which predicted girls' greater effortful learning over time. The sex difference in learning strategies accounted for girls' edge over boys in terms of grades. Girls did not do better on achievement tests, possibly because self-efficacy, for which there was also no sex difference, was the central predictor of performance on achievement tests.
Educational Studies in Mathematics, 1995
This study examined the relationship of selected cognitive and affective variables to mathematics achievement for a random sample of 60 students as they progressed through 6th, 8th,10th and 12th grades. A consistent gender difference was found for stereotyping mathematics as a male domain. No consistent significant gender difference between means was found for spatial skills, verbal skill or mathematics achievement. Confidence, verbal skill and spatial visualization were each consistently positively correlated with mathematics achievement for both males and females. No gender difference was found for these correlations. However, spatial skills alone were found to be consistent significant predictors of mathematics achievement for females each year of the study, but not for males. Verbal skill was a consistent significant predictor of mathematics achievement for males, but not for females. The results of this study could lead to a reevaluation of the hypothesis that spatial skills help boys achieve in mathematics.
The objective of this study was to examine gender differences in the relations between verbal, spatial, mathematics, and teacher–child mathematics interaction variables. Kindergarten children (N=80) were videotaped playing games that require mathematical reasoning in the presence of their teachers. The children's mathematics, spatial, and verbal skills and the teachers' mathematical communication were assessed. No gender differences were found between the mathematical achievements of the boys and girls, or between their verbal and spatial skills. However, mathematics performance was related to boys' spatial reasoning and to girls' verbal skills, suggesting that they use different processes for solving mathematical problems. Furthermore, the boys' levels of spatial and verbal skills were not found to be related, whereas they were significantly related for girls. The mathematical communication level provided in teacher–child interactions was found to be related to girls' but not to boys' mathematics performance, suggesting that boys may need other forms of mathematics communication and teaching.
Fluency, accuracy, and gender predict developmental trajectories of arithmetic strategies
Journal of Educational Psychology, 2011
The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are different growth trajectories of arithmetic strategies and whether these trajectories result in different achievement outcomes. Longitudinal data were collected on 240 students who began the study as 2nd graders. In the 1st year of the study, the 2nd-grade students were assessed on fluency and accuracy on simple arithmetic problems. During the fall of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades, they were assessed on strategies for complex (multiple-digit) arithmetic. They were assessed on mathematics competency at the end of 4th grade. Growth mixture modeling was used to assess developmental trajectories in arithmetic strategies; the roles of fluency, accuracy, and gender in the development of latent class; and the impact of latent class on 4th-grade mathematics competency. The data indicated 2 latent classes of growth trajectories for correct cognitive strategy use and for attempted manipulative strategy use. Three latent classes were needed to explain the development of attempted cognitive strategy use. Fluency appeared to have the most significant impact on the growth rate, whereas accuracy and gender tended to influence the initial level of performance. Not all children transitioned away from manipulatives easily. A small latent class of children slightly increased their use of manipulatives over the course of the study, with the girls in this group being less likely than boys to abandon manipulatives. Finally, what appears to be the normal developmental trajectory for strategies was not found to serve many children well in regard to later mathematics achievement.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2007
The present study tested the development of working-memory involvement in children's arithmetic strategy selection and strategy efficiency. To this end, an experiment -in which the dual-task method and the choice/no-choice method were combined -was administered to 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old children. Working memory was needed in retrieval, transformation, and counting strategies, but the ratio between available working-memory resources and arithmetic task demands changed across age. More frequent retrieval use, more efficient memory retrieval, and more efficient counting processes reduced the working-memory requirements. Strategy efficiency and strategy selection were also modified by individual differences such as processing speed, arithmetic skill, gender, and math anxiety. Short-term memory capacity, on the other hand, was not related to children's strategy selection or strategy efficiency.