Evaluating mental arithmetic skill and its role in controlling the solution of mathematical problems

Abstract

The objective of this article is to identify the mental calculation capability of the sixth-year primary school pupils in answering mathematical questions like those provided in the first trimester schedule. Two questions capture interest. (1) Do sixth-year primary school pupils get low marks in the test of mental calculation? (2) Are these low-scores directly related to those obtained in the test of mathematical problem solving? The field research considers a sample of 284 pupils scattered over ten schools in the province of Constantine. It comes out that pupils’ mental calculation performance is weak, and that this has much to do with their mathematical problem-solving abilities.