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Examining Incremental Rehearsal: Multiplication Fluency with Fifth-Grade Students with Math IEP Goals

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Abstract

Reports show that only 40% of 4th-grade students are proficient in math and American students are failing to demonstrate proficiency in key areas of mathematics (National Center for Educational Statistics 2011). Improving students’ fluency of basic math multiplication facts has been recommended as a way to increase math proficiency (Psychology in the Schools, 47:342–353, 2010). Incremental rehearsal is one promising strategy for improving multiplication skills. In this study, three 5th-grade students with disabilities who had Individual Education Plan math goals received one-to-one multiplication instruction using an incremental rehearsal strategy twice per week for 7 weeks. Data indicated immediate and large effects with intervention and growth rates for each student that exceeded expectations. Implications are discussed including the importance of considering both statistically significant and instructionally meaningful results in interpretation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations, University of Iowa, 361 Lindquist Center, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1929, USA

    Samantha M. McVancel

  2. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Washington, 322R Miller Hall, Seattle, WA, 98195-3600, USA

    Kristen N. Missall

  3. Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Iowa, N252 Lindquist Center, Iowa City, IA, 52242-1929, USA

    Allison L. Bruhn

Authors
  1. Samantha M. McVancel
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  2. Kristen N. Missall
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  3. Allison L. Bruhn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Samantha M. McVancel.

Ethics declarations

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All data were collected according to APA’s ethical guidelines. Data were collected by the first author, who was working in the schools and delivering the intervention. Because of this and because the data represent standard educational practice which IRB does not define as research, informed consent was not collected formally outside the IEP process.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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McVancel, S.M., Missall, K.N. & Bruhn, A.L. Examining Incremental Rehearsal: Multiplication Fluency with Fifth-Grade Students with Math IEP Goals. Contemp School Psychol 22, 220–232 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-018-0178-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-018-0178-x

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