The projects aim is to expand our knowledge and understanding of students’ adaptivity and flexibility in mathematics, with focus on arithmetic. Flexibility refer to the use of multiple strategies and adaptivity to making appropriate strategy choice (Verschaffel, Luwel, Torbeyns, & Van Dooren, 2009)
The three aspects of my research:
First, to what extent students in 3rd, 6th and 8th grade use shortcut strategies (adaptivity) to solve problems in multidigit addition, subtraction and multiplication and the students strategy repertoire (flexibility). The measurement tool is adapted from Tri-phase Flexibility Assessment (TriFA) (Xu et al, 2017), initially developed to assess flexibility in the topic of linear equations but here adapted to arithmetic. All items have been chosen or designed to elicit use of shortcut strategies.
Second, what characterize the two groups of Adaptive and Routine experts.The two expert groups are defined based on the results from TriFA. In investigate differences in the two groups based on gender, age, achievement level and student background (SES).
Third, I focus on the sociocultural differences and investigate the between school and within-school differences based on the results from TriFA. I look at possible relationship between the teachers’ beliefs about developing strategies in arithmetic and differences between classes, using a teacher questionnaire
Flexibility Assesment: Deltagerne er 2298 elever fra 121 klasser fordelt på 20 danske folkeskoler. Lærersurvey (matematiklærere i de deltagende klasser). Forældresurvey (forældre til elever i de deltagende klasser).