MENTAL ARITHMETIC SKILLS: COMPARATIVE RESEARCH BASED ON ESTONIAN AND FINNISH PUPILS

Estonian pupils achieved good results in international tests like TIMSS and PISA (IEA's TIMSS 2003 International Report on Achievement in the Mathematics Cognitive Domains, 2005; Assessing Scientific, Reading and Mathematical Literacy, 2006). Despite the high results of Estonian pupils, annual official tests showed that there were problems in subtraction, multiplication and time calculations at primary school level (The National Examinations and Qualifications Centre, 2009). The key question this research poses is what kind of mental arithmetic skills do children in the first three forms of primary school possess? The aim is to analyze what kind of changes should be implemented in the national curriculum in order to improve the maths studies of Estonian pupils. Mental arithmetic tests were carried out in late April and early May 2006 both in Estonia and in Finland. Two groups of pupils participated in the tests, one of which consisted of pupils from seven Estonian schools from different parts of Estonia, and the other consisted of the first, second and third form pupils at Turku University Practice School which is the training school for teacher trainees studying at the Turku University, Finland. In this research, mental arithmetic is studied among children attending the first, second and third forms of primary school. Differences between the sexes are studied and, in addition, differences between Finnish and Estonian pupils are examined by comparing the Estonian results with those of the Finnish group. On the basis of the test, Estonian pupils received higher results in mental arithmetic exercises. Both Estonian and Finnish boys performed better than girls in mental arithmetic exercises in the second and third forms. The results confirm a good level of skills amongst the Estonian pupils, but also show in which tasks the most mistakes occurred. The exercises which acquired the use of working memory caused more mistakes. Further, the results indicate a difference between the mastery of boys and girls in mental arithmetic which highlights a need for the differentiation of teaching strategies according the sex of pupils.