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EduThink® Closing the Achievement Gap Research Results of Instructional
Alternatives Study conducted at UC, Berkeley Some of the most remarkable outcomes of the study
were serendipitous and therefore not subjected to the rigors of statistical
analysis. Problems occurred relating
to basic reading and simple numeration. Most of the students could not read with
comprehension the words used to ask questions. They appeared to be at the associative level
in both reading and numeration. They
could sound out words and define them, but they weren’t “incorporating”
them in context. They could count,
and recognize numbers, but didn’t understand relationships. When reinforcements (e.g., “Good.” “Right.” “Correct.” “Wrong.”) appeared,
they did not make the connection that those words related to their performance.
Thus, they did not know when they had erred or answered correctly.
Furthermore, they transposed words and/or skipped words, thus changing
the meaning of a sentence. Many
students read word by word, thereby failing to understand the sense of
a given question. When students were told their scores at the end
of the subtests, they had no idea what the numbers meant. For example, the program might state, “You scored
2 correct out of 6.” If I asked,
“How many did you get wrong?” they would answer either “2” or “6.” Similar querying confirmed the lack of true
grasp of numbers as quantitative entities.
Thus, as in reading, students appeared to be operating at an associative
level rather than a conceptual one in their understanding of numbers. Measured IQs ranged from the 60’s to 154. Parenthetically, the student who scored 154
on the 10-test battery was not able to read with comprehension, and his
teacher had no idea that he was “bright.” Toward the end of the experiment, all students
taking Program C were reading with comprehension.
In addition, the slowest students, who had severe comprehension
difficulties with both arithmetic and reading at the beginning, often
progressed quickly through the last two lessons, which were “difficult”
in terms of content, more abstract, fading the use of graphic representations
to support the arithmetic concepts. Furthermore, students were required to find a missing “factor” of an equation, which is a division
concept and precursor to algebra.
Of special interest, it was those “slow” students who volunteered to come
during their recess, lunch periods, and after school in order to finish
the lessons in the limited (two-month) time allotted before the removal
of the terminals.
Conclusion While both methods resulted in learning, Program C, which taught the concepts of multiplication and required reading with comprehension, was deemed preferable, due to the benefits that could transfer to other learning. Program C is the Multiplication course on the EduThink.us website. It is our hope that further research in math and reading, based upon the study results, will prove valuable in closing the achievement gap of at-risk chidren that currently exists.
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