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MENTAL COMPUTATION STRATEGIES FOR ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION ALGORITHMS

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MENTAL COMPUTATION STRATEGIES FOR ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION ALGORITHMS

Author: Tom Cooper, Ann Heirdsfield & Calvin Irons

Publication Year: 1993

Abstract

The changing nature of modern technological society and the role of mathematics in its functioning is
resulting in calls for increased emphasis on mental computation and computational estimation and reduced.
emphasis on pen-and-paper algorithms. There is strong evidence that children be9in primary school with
many original and creative strategies for the operations,strategies that support mental algorithms and
computational estimation. However, the procedures in traditional pen-and-paper algorithms appear to
inhibit these spontaneous strategies and the early treatment of pen-and-paper algorithms may be wrongly
placed in modern mathematics syllabi. This paper identifies and describes the different spontaneously
derived cognitive strategies for one-; two- and three-digit mental computation in addition and subtraction used by 130 children within a longitudinal study to' examine changes in knowledge and use of strategies
over Years 2 and 3 of traditional pen-and-paper algorithm instruction.

Type: Research Paper

TOM COOPER, ANN HEIRDSFIELD AND CALVIN IRONS
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