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Development of division strategies for Year 5 pupils in ten English schools (Updated)

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Thinking skills
Mathematics

What did the researchers set out to learn?

The author’s intention was to analyse the strategies that pupils used to solve division problems before and then after they had been taught to do division in Year 5. During the intervening time classroom activities would have involved the direct teaching of division.

The researchers wanted to look at pupils’ written recording of their work in order to:

  • identify pupils’ informal and intuitive approaches to division;
  • look at individual approaches to using standard ‘taught’ methods; and
  • assess any changes in strategies that children use after teaching.