Initial Efficacy of a Decimal Vocabulary Intervention for Students With Mathematics Difficulty in Grade 5

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the initial efficacy of a decimal vocabulary intervention for Grade 5 students with mathematics difficulty (MD) and to explore its impact on decimal arithmetic performance. We employed a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline, single-case research design to evaluate the effect of the intervention. Five fifth-grade Chinese students experiencing MD participated in the study and the intervention occurred 25 min per session over a total of 10 sessions. Visual analysis demonstrated that the decimal vocabulary intervention significantly enhanced both decimal vocabulary and decimal arithmetic performance, and these improvements sustained 3 weeks after the intervention. Findings suggested that students with MD could acquire decimal vocabulary through a brief intervention and retain the knowledge even after the intervention ended. Moreover, improved decimal vocabulary knowledge may positively affect their decimal arithmetic performance.

Keywords

decimal mathematics difficulty mathematics vocabulary transfer

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