How have five years of the National Numeracy Strategy affected Year 5 pupils’ written division calculations?

This digest found in

Mathematics

How did pupils differ in their division methods and success rates?

When the study compared the performance of pupils in 2003 with that of pupils in 1998, it found that:

pupil scores improved slightly overall (average score 3.85 out of a possible 8 compared with 3.45) but still compared poorly with the scores of Dutch pupils of the same age who sat comparable tests in 1998 (average score 5.41);
pupil scores improved most on questions using a two-digit divisor because more children in 2003 successfully used a chunking approach that had been introduced by the NNS, whereas the 1998 group usually tried to use a traditional algorithm with little success;
pupils used informal strategies for division more often and their use of the traditional algorithm dropped from half of the items attempted to 19% of them;
in some schools, pupils used the new chunking strategy successfully, but in other schools, pupils did not use the chunking strategy at all;
in six of the schools, pupils rarely used any type of structured or formal written method of recording, but mostly relied on informal, unstructured methods of calculating and recording;
pupils in the two highest scoring schools made good use of structured written methods; and
pupils in the lowest scoring schools often tried to use partitioning strategies, in which the digits were split into tens and units for the calculation. (An alternative strategy would have been to work with whole number values).

Your path: Home > Welcome to The Research Informed Practice Site (TRIPS) > Themes > Mathematics > How have five years of the National Numeracy Strategy affected Year 5 pupils’ written division calculations? > How did pupils differ in their division methods and success rates?
Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction How did pupils differ in their division methods and success rates? What strategies did pupils use in more and less successful schools? Did boys and girls perform differently? What did the researcher conclude from the study? What were the aims of the study and how was it designed? What are the implications of the study? Where can I find out more? Definitions Send us your feedback Collated digests To find out more about collated digests click here Get Word Reader How have five years of the National Numeracy Strategy affected Year 5 pupils’ written division calculations? This digest found in Mathematics Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did pupils differ in their division methods and success rates? When the study compared the performance of pupils in 2003 with that of pupils in 1998, it found that: pupil scores improved slightly overall (average score 3.85 out of a possible 8 compared with 3.45) but still compared poorly with the scores of Dutch pupils of the same age who sat comparable tests in 1998 (average score 5.41); pupil scores improved most on questions using a two-digit divisor because more children in 2003 successfully used a chunking approach that had been introduced by the NNS, whereas the 1998 group usually tried to use a traditional algorithm with little success; pupils used informal strategies for division more often and their use of the traditional algorithm dropped from half of the items attempted to 19% of them; in some schools, pupils used the new chunking strategy successfully, but in other schools, pupils did not use the chunking strategy at all; in six of the schools, pupils rarely used any type of structured or formal written method of recording, but mostly relied on informal, unstructured methods of calculating and recording; pupils in the two highest scoring schools made good use of structured written methods; and pupils in the lowest scoring schools often tried to use partitioning strategies, in which the digits were split into tens and units for the calculation. (An alternative strategy would have been to work with whole number values).