Number crunching: Computer math inspires kids to learn

[ Originally published on: Friday, May 15, 2009 ]

Recorder/Paul Franz

Sharon Edwards of the University of Massachusetts School of Education helps Tyler Picking, a fourth-grade student at the (Deerfield Elementary School, with her math on a computer. Catherine Thacker is at right.

DEERFIELD -- The clamor of children's voices just outside the Deerfield Elementary School computer lab suggested they were anticipating something fun -- like a lunch break or field trip. They didn't sound like a group waiting to start their math lab.

But they were.

Sharon Edwards, a 30-year elementary teacher and educator with the University of Massachusetts School of Education, is part of the reason. For one thing, she brings in bags and bags of stuffed animals that children can keep with them during lab-time.

'Come choose a 'coach,' she calls to the two dozen children, who eagerly select a toy representing their favorite virtual 'math coach.' Then the pleasant din stops, as children log on to computers, and get to work with their online math coaches, who help them with math problems.

Since children love to play on computers, why not put that technology to work, to help them excel at math? reasoned Robert Maloy of Shelburne, an education specialist at the UMass School of Education. As a result, for the last three or four years, Maloy and collaborators Edwards and Ph.D. student Gordon Anderson have been working on '4mality' (pronounced 'formality').

4mality is an 'intelligent tutoring system,' an interactive computer program that lets third- and fourth-graders go online to get math problems, get help from computer software 'coaches,' and get immediate feedback on how well they do in solving each problem.

Last year, Edwards and Maloy tested the computer program with 125 third- and fourth-graders at schools in Deerfield, Turners Falls and in Greenfield. The students took a pretest, to measure their baseline ability, used the computer program for several weeks, then took another test to measure their skill afterward.

'We found they improved their scores by 25 percent,' said Maloy. 'That's a statistically significant finding. And we found fourth-graders enjoy the opportunity to learn using interactive technologies.'

This year, their continuing research is part of a broader UMass project to develop interactive computer programs that reduce 'math anxiety' and provide online coaching for high school, as well as grade school students.

The intelligent tutoring systems, developed by the UMass School of Education and Computer Science Department, have received a three-year, $1 million grant to measure results and refine the program for broader use. The elementary and secondary grade-level programs are being tested in local classrooms.

Maloy and Edwards' specialty has been developing the program for grade-school children, while other UMass educators have spent about a decade developing a program to help high school students strengthen their math skills.

Once on their computers, some of the Deerfield Elementary School children seem impatient to get the right answers, and seem to guess at their multiple-choice answers, rather than click on a coach for help. That's where the real teachers and teacher aides come in.

Edwards scans the screens as the students work.

'How did you arrive at that answer?' she gently asks a boy on the verge of clicking a choice. When he doesn't seem to know, she directs him to the coaches and walks him through the process.

'Very few kids want to check 'clues' or 'hints,' she later remarks.

Ten-year-old Tyler Picking of Montague explains what he's doing on the computer: 'I'm using a coach to determine what kind of problem this is, then figuring out the problem to get the answer.' When asked if he thinks the program is improving his math skills, he says, 'Yes. This has helped.'

Maloy said some people thought grade-school children would be too young for interactive computer learning, 'but we're finding it works well -- because these are kids that are growing up with high tech,' he said.

'More often, that (online) technology is used for recreation and for gaming -- not harnessed for education,' Maloy said. 'One thing we found is, you can take this technology that kids are inherently interested in and turn it a bit to get kids excited about academic subjects they're not inherently interested in.'

Both the fourth-grade and high school systems have 'online coaches' that have specific personalities and points of view.

For the grade-school program, there's Estella the Explainer, a dragon that gives advice on an overview of a problem. How-To Hound, a dog in a Sherlock Holmes hat, is a 'strategy coach' that shows children how to do estimates and round-off numbers. Chef Math Bear helps them figure out which math procedure is called for, and Visual Vera helps children interpret pictorial presentations.

Maloy said kids tend to choose the 'coach' that best matches their own learning strengths, since children learn differently.

'They're always so happy to be here,' observed Holly Dobson, technology interpretive specialist at Deerfield Elementary School. 'When they use the coaches, they do so much better. That's the idea -- to give them the support.'

According to Edwards, excitement and interest is essential in children's learning experience.

'If that 50 minutes isn't exciting, they don't come back in here with the same ability to think,' she said. 'When you go into a room dreading something, all that dread comes in to dampen your creative and intellectual capacity. And you walk into the situation already closed down.'

'And, on something as important as the MCAS test, they need every available support and enjoyment mechanism to enter this with confidence -- because confidence enhances thinking.'

After students complete a certain number of problems correctly, they move up to a higher level of problem-solving.

'It's math in a fun way,' said their fourth-grade teacher Irene Woodard, adding that it will help the children in their MCAS test. 'They're into it. They've got the tools. Just the satisfaction that they're getting the correct answers builds self-esteem.'

Some online questions were directly taken from old MCAS tests that have been released into the public domain.

For example, here's one:

Gordon Stadium can seat 79,407 people, while Hillcrest Stadium seats only 58,868 people. How many more people can Gordon Stadium seat than Hillcrest Stadium?

Children can click on 'stadium' for a glossary definition, because not all fourth-graders know what it is, Edwards explained.

On the right-hand side of the screen, Estella Explainer asks, 'What kind of question is this?' and Chef Math Bear asks 'What is a HOW MANY MORE question?' -- because not all children will recognize that this word problem is really about subtraction.

'Some children think 'how many more' always signifies addition,' Edwards said.

Using actual MCAS questions familiarizes the children with the style of questions they'll see on their MCAS tests, she said. Also, eventually the children will be asked to write their own math problems.

'They're devising questions in an MCAS manner,' said Edwards. 'To create your own problem and your own answer, you have to figure out what information you need to write your own problem. From a creator's viewpoint, you practice solving in a different way.'

'We're trying to figure out what helps these kids to not give up,' she said. 'This is also an intervention, to support learning math at a younger age. It opens a door that shuts easily.'

In contrast, for many high school students, 'The door is already shut. They think: 'I hate math. I'm no good at it. I can't do it.'

Next: Computer program measures high school 'math anxiety.'

 

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