The Importance of Fluent Component Skills in Mathematical Comprehension

• Main Author: Komatsu, Chisato
• Other Authors: Nathan Call
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2004
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-10272004-150409/

The primary question to be addressed by the present study was whether fluency on component skills is important in the development of overall competency in mathematics. Reading fluency has served as an excellent predictor of ones reading comprehension. However, few studies have investigated whether the fluency on component skills is essential in the development of overall competency in mathematics. In fact, there has been a push for instructional strategies to deemphasize the importance component skills. In the current study, 140 students in second- through fourth- grade classrooms from general education participated. Each student took three curriculum-based measurement probes (a single-skill mathematical computation probe, multiple-skill mathematical computation probes and maze reading passages), a mathematical reasoning probe, the Big Ideas probe and the Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test, Fourth Edition. Results of the six assessments were compared to determine if a fluency in component skills will adequately predict students mathematical comprehension. Results demonstrated that the fluent component skills are in fact highly related to students mathematics comprehension.