Date

7-15-2024

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Nathan Putney

Keywords

long- and short-term storage, mathematical fact fluency, rehearsal, retention, retrieval, spaced intervals, working memory

Disciplines

Educational Methods

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group study was to determine if there is a difference in mathematical fact fluency among third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students with varying practice methods and spacing intervals while controlling for pre-test scores. The study filled the literature gap by examining the impact of each variable and their combined additive effect in a third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade student population. Given the importance of math fact fluency on overall math performance, finding the most effective means for building retention is imperative. The sample included 196 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students. Data collection was completed prior to the start of the intervention using the fluency instrument from the Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests. Following data collection, a two-way analysis of covariance was conducted to measure the differences among the retrieval strategies and the various spacing intervals. The Bonferroni post hoc analysis was used to look for sample group variances. Following data analysis, the main effects of treatment and time demonstrated statistical significance; therefore, null hypotheses one and two were rejected. The researcher was unable to reject the third null hypothesis. The study demonstrated that treatment and time can positively influence students' mathematical fact fluency. It is recommended that future researchers consider alternate levels of the variables, separate the mathematical operations to take a closer look at each independently, study the correlation between fluency and anxiety, and coordinate a longitudinal study looking at how fluency affects later performance.

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