NRO grant for early detection of arithmetic difficulties

Researcher Niek Frans and his colleagues have received an NRO grant of approximately 350,000 euros for a project that aims to determine how existing test data can be used more effectively to identify problems in arithmetic fluency at an earlier stage.

For many children, a problem like 5 + 3 feels straightforward. But for some, the automatisation of basic arithmetic facts develops slowly, which increases the burden on their working memory when tasks become more complex. Schools currently assess this mainly by looking at how many problems a student solves correctly within a short time frame. This leaves crucial information unused: some items are structurally more difficult, take more time, and speed and skill are closely intertwined.

Frans and his colleagues want to improve existing tests by applying modern measurement models that analyse speed, accuracy and characteristics of individual items together. This will provide clearer insight into which pupils are at risk and for which types of items problems occur. The models will first be tested on large amounts of anonymous Cito data and then tried out in practice at one hundred schools.

The project is a collaboration between the University of Groningen, the University of Twente and CitoLab.