Are Omani Children Struggling with Mathematics: Towards Setting Learning Goals to Build Lifelong Learning Skills

Emam, M.M (Mahmoud)¹, Al-Shihhi, S. (Safiya)
¹Sultan Qaboos University, 123-Al-Khoud, 32, Muscat-Sultanate of Oman

 

Submission type

Oral only

Scheduled

Room 115, 12-07-2019, 11:00 - 12:30

Keywords

Struggling Learners in Mathematics, Curriculum Based Measurement, Oman

Summary

Rationale. Mathematics educators seek to help their learners at risk for failure and empower them to succeed both in and out of the classroom. The idea is to make sure that once they leave school they can promote their learning. In essence, our struggling learners must become the teachers and the leaders of themselves. Mathematics is one area with which several children in Oman struggle, although it can boost children’s lifelong learning. Oman has recently given due attention to the teaching and learning of mathematics particularly as Omani students performed under international benchmarks in TIMSS 2011 and 2015. Objective. We report on a study that aimed to develop mathematical computation curriculum based measurement (MC-CBM) for Arab speaking fourth grade students, examine its psychometric properties, test its adequacy for use in an Arab context, namely Oman, determine an adequate time for its administration, and develop performance benchmarks. Method. MC-CBM were administered to 528 fourth grade students. Results. Results indicated that the developed measures were adequate for use in the Arab context. Received operation characteristic (ROC) curve indicated good specificity and sensitivity estimates for the MC-CBM. Performance benchmarks were obtained using the 25th and 75th percentiles. Implications. Implications are discussed from a contextual perspective.

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