Improving Thinking in Children with Low Mathematics Achievement

Many primary school children struggle with mathematics and have low self-esteem in their own abilities. They know that the subject is important but they cannot cope, get left behind in their work and begin to hate mathematics. This paper reports the efforts to encourage and help a group of seventeen low achievers in mathematics prepare for their "primary six" public examination. The children were lacking in many thinking skills, but with encouragement, guidance and practice, thirteen of them (76.5%) showed improvements in their mathematical thinking and passed this important examination. This paper discusses these children's thinking in mathematics and how improvements were made.