Het effect van het remediërend programma, Op weg naar rekenen, voor kleuters met een benedengemiddeld getalbegrip; wat is de invloed van het werkgeheugen en het rekenniveau voor de start van de interventie op dit mogelijke effect.

Abstract

Objective: In the past years an increasing number of studies have confirmed the relationship between the foundation of number sense in informal education and learning to count in formal education. To stimulate the below average number sense of preschool children the intervention Op weg naar rekenen was designed. Method: 440 mathematically weak preschool children participated after convenience sampling; 149 in the intervention group and 291 in the control group (regular math program). The number sense was measured by the Utrechtse Getalbegrip Toets-Revised (UGT-R), the Automated Working Memory Assessment (AWMA) was used to measure working memory. Results: Both groups scored significantly higher on the posttest than on the pretest, with a higher difference in the intervention group compared to the control group. The intervention group improved more at the domains ‘telwoorden gebruiken’ and ‘toepassen van kennis van getallen’ compared to the control group. However, the differences found in this study were too small to be of practical importance. In addition, two child-associated factors were found to influence the development of number sense. Children from level D made greater progress than children from level E and C. Further, working memory influenced the development of number sense, wherein the verbal working memory has a greater influence than the visual working memory. Conclusion: The intervention seems to have no extra effect on the number sense skills of mathematically weak preschool children. The working memory of children has only a small influence on the development of number sense.