This research investigation examined the effects of GO Solve Word Problems math intervention on problem-solving skills of struggling 5th grade students. In a randomized controlled study, 16 5th grade students were given a 12-week intervention of GO Solve, a computer-based program designed to teach schema-based instruction strategies (SBI's) to solve math word problems and 16 control students continued with the standard school-based mathematics curriculum. A subset of items from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) as well as the Group Mathematics Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GMADE) was used to measure student test performance. Examiner-made probes were given to both the treatment and control groups every other week to measure student progress. Results indicate that the mean difference scores of the experimental and control groups were statistically significant on a subtest of MCAS problems and a large effect size was reported. However, no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups was found on the on the Process and Application subtest of the GMADE. On examiner-made probes, there was a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. Limitations of this study as well as implications for practice will be discussed.

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of video self-modelling (VSM) and the iPad application (Fast Fact Math, FFM) interventions on a group of Year 5 students to increase their knowledge of basic number facts. This study also aimed to measure the intervention group’s self-efficacy levels (Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scales, PALS) before and following the interventions. Participants were drawn from a decile 9 primary school in a suburban area (teaches Year 1 to Year 6). The Test (pre-, mid-, and post-test phases) were administered by a class teacher to all Year 5 students. Following consultation with the teacher, eight students whose scores fell below the 25th percentile were invited to participate in the study. The intervention group took a specific level test to ascertain their basic number facts performance on all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). The videos and the FFM app were personalised to each intervention group’s members in an effort to elicit from the errors that they made on specific level test. At the completion of each intervention sessions, session probes were conducted. Meanwhile, the researcher gave a self-efficacy test (PALS) to the participants before and following intervention phases. Results showed that, although more than half of the intervention group increased their basic number fact performance level following the interventions, their overall self-efficacy rating on PALS did not change. Results also showed that VSM is a time-efficient and rapid learning method to use with the intervention group as opposed to the iPad app, which took two times longer to complete a session. Further areas of study are suggested.