Assessing Numeracy Thinking Strategy for Year Four Primary School Pupils

Abstract

Improving numeracy skills is fundamental to increasing productivity and therefore economic growth. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of numeracy level attain by a cohort of Malaysian primary school pupils. Specifically, we were interested to examine the pupils’ level of numeracy according to the mathematical topics and the impact of using numeracy model towards pupils’ mathematics achievement. This study employed two types of research designs; a qualitative descriptive research and the experimental pre-post design. A total sample of 200 Primary Four, Year 5 pupils (9-10-year-old) from 20 Malaysian primary schools at the District of Kota Bharu, Kelantan was randomly selected for this study. The Mathematics Test was designed to measure students' Mathematics Achievement. Bloom taxonomy was used in developing items for the tests as it allowed in examining key concepts and levels of numeracy understanding. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages and inferential statistics, namely the paired sample t-test were used to analyse the data. The numeracy levels were identified by mathematics teachers’ classroom observation assessment and researchers’ observation through clinical interview. The findings showed that majority of the pupils (70 pupils) were at the application level identified by mathematics teachers’ classroom observation assessment. However, majority of the pupils were at de-coding (70 pupils) and analysis (65 pupils) levels identified by researchers’ observation through clinical interview conducted after thenumeracy module was introduced tothe pupils. Some excellence pupils were able to achieve the level of application and analysis. The findings also revealed that more pupils can reach the analysis level for Addition topic as compared to Division, Multiplication and Subtraction topics. Furthermore, the pupils had better Mathematics achievement in the post-test as compared to the pre-test, thus the use of numeracy model helped students scored better in the post-test. This study contributes to the knowledge development and practice of teaching learning, namely in numeracy understanding. The numeracy understanding model can elicit ideas to solve the real-life problems hence pupils will be more critical and creative in solving mathematical problems.

Keywords Model of Understanding Numeracy Level, de-coding, meaning-making, application, analysis, Year
Four primary school pupils, mathematics teaching and learning.