Procedural Fluency Essay

5259 Words22 Pages
Does Practice Make Perfect? The Effects of Procedural Fluency Chaylor Garner Theories of Instruction Dr. Audrey Bowser Summer, 2013 Abstract Sports players, dancers, golfers, and even astronauts practice hours upon hours for continued success in their fields. Football players have practice in all types of weather, winter to fall, in order to be prepared for their all important games. Dancers, skaters, ice skaters, and even circus participants put in many hours per week perfecting their skills and procedures for performance. Astronauts are challenged for at least two years before being ready for a mission. How would the same practice change the success of math students? Will math students have the same success if they have a scheduled study time of at least two hours a week outside of their scheduled math class of fifty-five minutes a day? Why are students in need of practice in their studies as well as extracurricular activities? Studies show that students not only need to learn concepts, but they also need to have procedural fluency along with those concepts in order to be successful in mathematics. The only way to achieve procedural fluency is to practice, practice, and practice. The purpose of this research “Does practice make perfect?” is to research the effects of practicing mathematical procedures at least two hours per week during the data collection period. A group of 2013-2014 incoming eighth grade math students are enrolled in an online math program which assesses their mathematical ability for the upcoming course and then assigns them individualized lessons according to their assessments. Data was analyzed based on the growth of skills learned and the amount of time spent in the program modules during the data collection period. A second data collection was done through a survey completed by the participating students as to whether
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