Performance of grade eight mathematics students on selected discovery tasks
Date
1974
Authors
Pearse, Kenneth James
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Abstract
A set of programmed book l ets was prepared by the writer and presented to his mathematics classes to determine how well Grade Eight students perform on selected discovery tasks of a mathematical nature. The subjects were ninety-four students in three Mathematics 8 classes taught by the writer at Belmont-Fisher Secondary School, School District 62 (Sooke) in the 1973-74 school year.
Of nine programs tested in a pilot study, five were selected for the main experiment. The programmed booklets were presented to the pupils in their regular mathematics classes after prerequisite concepts had been studied. These booklets were u sed to assess skill in discovery and ability to verbalize discoveries.
For each of the selected tasks, the Chi-square statistic was used to test a t the . 05 level of significance whether rate of discovery was associated with mathematics achievement, mathematical ability, verbal ability, and sex. For two tasks in which the material was presented in alternate forms, the association between rate of discovery and method of presentation was also tested.
Scores on the Cooperative School and College Ability Test: Form 4-A were used as measures of mathematical ability and verbal ability. Mathematics achievement scores were available from the Stanford Achievement Test: Advanced Arithmetic Tests, Form W, which was written by the students in their Grade Seven classes.
For all of the discovery tasks investigated, rate of discovery was found to be independent of sex. For all tasks except one, rate of discovery was associated with mathematical ability and achievement. Rate of discovery was associated with verbal ability on two of the five tasks. For both topics in which method of presentation was varied, rate of discovery was found to be independent of method. It was also found that verbalization was not a reliable indication for the discovery of a concept.
The experimental findings were discussed with regard to amount of guidance, discovery readiness, the role of verbalization in discovery learning, the use of programmed materials, and the application of discovery techniques in the mathematics classroom.