Type of Mathematics Teaching, Mathematical Ability and Divergent Thinking in Junior School Children

S ummary . Tests of intelligence, mathematical ability, divergent thinking and attitudes to school subjects were administered to a sample of 265 children in their final year at three junior schools. The three groups were matched for social class, intelligence and time devoted to mathematics teaching, the chief difference between them being that in one school (School C) mathematics was taught by a discovery approach, in another school (B) by traditional methods, whilst in the third school (A) the staff aimed to ‘keep a balance’ between traditional and discovery methods. A factor analysis of the data revealed a large, general factor with high loadings for intelligence, mathematical and divergent ability tasks, and a second factor of divergent thinking, on which a few of the mathematical tests loaded, but then only minimally. A comparison of the three schools showed that, in general, the performance of School C on the mathematics tests was signficantly below that of the other two schools, although children at School C tended to perform well on divergent thinking tests. There were some exceptions to this pattern which need clarification by further research

Class (philosophy) · Factor (programming language) · Mathematics education · Computer Science · Education, Achievement, and Giftedness · Educational Games and Gamification · Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques · Psychology