A pilot project comparing the effectiveness of using ICT for teaching addition and subtraction with first grade students

The purpose of this study is to investigate if information and communications technology (ICT) helps improve primary school students' mathematical achievements regarding addition and subtraction. Our research compares the level of mathematical competence of the students taught using our ICT oriented learning method which specifically takes advantage of `Realistic Mathematics Education' (RME) for the concept of addition and subtraction, as opposed to traditional teaching methodology. The designed software consisted of a story and several activities with and without the use of computers for addition. It was designed following the background of the RME theory. In addition, we use the mathematical test TEMA-3 to explore the use of ICT in the primary classroom for teaching basic mathematical concepts. It is a task orientated test which attends to measure the level of mathematical competence developed for students of the first grade. The present study was a pilot research of quasi-experimental design with one experimental and one control groups. We found that the students who were taught with educational intervention based on computers and RME had a significant improvement on their general mathematical achievement in comparison to those taught using the traditional teaching method.