A Comparative Study of Children’s Abilities in Mathematics Problem-Solving in Pedagogy of Text And Non-Pedagogy of Text-Based Schools of Center for Mass Education in Sciences (CMES)

Abstract

Centre for Mass Education in Sciences (CMES) started implementing Pedagogy of Text (PoT) in 70 schools in 2014. A baseline was developed in 2014. This study conducted in June 2015 examined, 17 months later, the adaptation and implementation of PoT in the area of (i) mathematical operation: addition-subtraction and (ii) word problem solving. The research question was: which differences can be observed in language and mathematics performances when teaching traditionally versus when teaching by Pedagogy of Text approach (PoT) after one year and half of teaching? The objective of the mathematics test was to assess the following elements: (i) mathematical operation for addition and subtraction with regrouping and regrouping with zero; (ii) word problem solving involving addition and subtraction. Overall, children from Schools following the Pedagogy of text approach (PoTSch) performed better than children from Schools following the traditional Bangladesh approach (NPoTSch). Large number of children from PoTSch was able to calculate column addition and subtraction, solved addition and subtraction equations and solved word problems compared to a few number of children from NPoTSch. Globally the results show that the type of teaching had influences on language and mathematics performances of children.