A Study Of Strategies For Developing Mathematical Operations Skills Of Grade 8 Students

The Mathematics Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition)(hereinafter referred to as the standards)states that numeracy is one of the main manifestations of core literacy at junior secondary level,and that mathematical numeracy is also the most basic mathematical ability which is both an important foundation for students to solve mathematical problems and an important factor affecting students’ performance.Consciously cultivating and improving students’ mathematical skills not only helps them to improve their academic performance,but also promotes the development of other core literacies that are closely related to mathematical skills,thus cultivating and improving students’ mathematical skills in a holistic manner and bringing them closer to the goal of all-round development.Mathematical operations is the primary and most fundamental of all mathematical skills,and is the cornerstone of the development of other mathematical skills.The content and difficulty of the knowledge related to mathematical operations increases significantly when students enter Grade 8,and the feedback from students’ mathematics performance and teachers indicates that the learning of mathematics in Grade 8 is often a watershed moment for the effectiveness of mathematics learning throughout students’ junior secondary school,and indeed throughout their mathematics learning careers.To improve students’ mathematical learning and develop their mathematical skills,we must first focus on the development of students’ mathematical arithmetic skills.It is therefore very important to investigate the current situation of students’ mathematical arithmetic skills in Year 8,to focus on students’ learning process,to find the causes of the current situation,and to give corresponding training strategies.In this paper,students from six Year 8 classes in the author’s internship school were selected as the subjects of this investigation.The current situation of students’ mathematical arithmetic skills was investigated and analysed in relation to Piaget’s cognitive development theory,SOLO classification theory and Polya’s problem solving theory,and development strategies were proposed based on the findings.This study adopts the literature research method to review,sort out and analyse the literature on the arithmetic ability of junior secondary school students and compile a review of the relevant literature;then the survey method is used to compile a test paper on the mathematical arithmetic ability of Grade 8 students,taking the content of Chapter 14 of the Human Education version of the junior secondary school mathematics textbook as the knowledge carrier,taking into account the purpose of the survey and the requirements of the curriculum;in addition,in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current situation of the mathematical arithmetic ability of Grade 8 students from multiple perspectives In addition,a survey was conducted by means of questionnaires for students and interviews with some students and teachers.After the survey,the results of the test and questionnaire were collected and collated,and the data were analysed into graphs and charts using SPSS 24.0software.The results of the teacher-student interviews and the usual classroom observations were then synthesised in order to grasp the current situation of Grade 8students’ mathematical arithmetic skills as a whole and to propose targeted and effective strategies for the development of Grade 8 students’ arithmetic skills.The survey found that,on the whole,Grade 8 students’ mathematical arithmetic skills are not satisfactory and need to be further improved and strengthened,specifically in the following areas: 1.weak ability to extract information from problems;2.wrong use of arithmetic formulae and rules;3.awareness of the application of mathematical ideas and methods to be improved;4.poor arithmetic habits;5.focus on arithmetic Based on the findings of the survey,the following strategies are proposed: 1.pay attention to the cultivation of non-intellectual factors,including: stimulating students’ interest in learning mathematics,helping students to develop good arithmetic habits,cultivating students’ will and improving their psychological quality;2.pay attention to the teaching of basic knowledge,and explain clearly the algorithm and arithmetic;3.broaden mathematical thinking by solving multiple problems,and enhance the ability to determine the best method of arithmetic.To enhance the ability to determine the best method of arithmetic;4.The penetration of important mathematical ideas and methods.