CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says his software program will make it easier and more enjoyable for elementary school students to learn basic addition and subtraction.
University of Illinois education Professor Arthur Baroody says the program, Number Sense, can build on a child's natural tendency to see out patterns and relations to learn simple mathematical reasoning strategies, a university release reports.
"Everyone agrees that kids need to learn the basic facts, but there's far less agreement among educators about how this can best be accomplished," Baroody said. "Many drill and practice programs have been developed to help kids memorize the basic combinations by rote. The theory is that if children hear or practice 9 plus 7 equals 16 repeatedly, they'll eventually just remember it."
But while most kindergarteners can count and know the number that comes after 7 is 8, many children can't readily specify that 7 plus 1 is 8, and they either count to determine the sum, guess or don't respond, Baroody said.
"However, once children connect with their existing knowledge that adding 1 results in the next number in the counting sequence, they can reason out any adding-1 combination, including those they've never practiced before," Baroody said.
"As children practice this reasoning strategy, it eventually becomes automatic and they can figure out any add-1 sum very efficiently."
Similarly, adding 8 or 9 to another number is "notoriously difficult for children to solve," Baroody said, but a Number Sense technique teaches to think about such problems as easier 10+n and subtract-1 problems: for example, if 10+7=17, then 9+7 is 1 less than 17, which is 16.
Baroody developed the software over the past seven years with funding from the U.S. Department of Education.
