Did children’s understanding of addition and subtraction depend on their arithmetic skills?
The researchers in this study of 127 primary pupils wanted to find out more about ways in which children’s understanding of mathematical relationships in addition and subtraction developed. In particular, they explored how children’s understanding of addition and subtraction was related to their competence in arithmetic. It seems to be common sense that young pupils who have a good understanding of mathematical concepts will also be good at calculating and that pupils who struggle with arithmetic will have a poor understanding of mathematical concepts. Yet this study showed that the picture is not that simple. It found a third group of children whose understanding of the principles behind addition and subtraction outstripped their numerical ability to calculate correctly. This suggested to the researchers that these children’s understanding of mathematical concepts did not develop from familiarity with practising sums. The study also found that more pupils understood problems that were
