Assessing Children’s Acquisition of Basic Numeracy Skills Using the Early Grade Mathematics Assessment (EGMA)

Abstract

The present study used the EGMA toolkit to evaluate the numeracy skills of Grade II students enrolled in “Assamese medium” government schools in Kamrup Metropolitan of Assam. A descriptive survey design was used and a sample of 50 students was obtained via purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The modified form of the adapted Early Grade Math Assessment (EGMA), created using the state curriculum and translated into Assamese had been piloted and had acceptable reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.768). The analysis of the data indicated that the students showed good ability in the number identification task, 93.60%, and in the number discrimination task, 92.20%. While Addition Level 1 (87.50%), Subtraction Level 1 (79.10%) and Word Problems (79.33%) were moderate, Missing Number (69.40%), Addition Level 2 (59.60%) and Subtraction Level 2 (55.60%) were difficult. Mental calculation was the most used strategy for all problem types, while paper-pencil method was the second and physical ways were the least preferred. This suggests that at least some children who struggle with complex numeracy tasks may not do so only because they lack certain knowledge or skills, but rather because they struggle to employ particular strategies in order to achieve a particular conceptual understanding.