Properly administered speed drills in arithmetic to improve both amount done correctly and accuracy¶
Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (4 for, 2 mixed) · 2 studies (2 causal),q2· 0 of 2 report an effect size · 6 claims rest on one study
Description¶
The article recommends speed drill in addition as an effective classroom practice: distributed practice in adding columns under school conditions raised the number of examples done correctly while maintaining or improving the percentage correct. The authors state that "Properly administered speed drills will in fact improve accuracy as well." The strategy is having pupils add columns of ten one-place numbers rapidly against their own past record in regular school periods.
Design Implications¶
Context¶
Requirements¶
- Drills must be properly administered, with pupils competing against their own past record rather than one another
Constraints¶
- Gains were measured for adding columns of ten one-place numbers; the article does not claim generality to other functions
Target Learners¶
- school pupils in elementary grades
Target Learning Goals¶
- arithmetic addition speed and accuracy
Claims¶
- Distributed school practice in addition produces large gains, roughly 50 per cent in examples correct, in school pupils as found [+W]
- Rate of improvement in addition practice shows negative acceleration, with the first half of practice the more productive [+W]
- Long practice periods were not much less favorable than short ones in addition practice, with evidence favoring the longer periods [+W]
- Drill classes gained 24.2 percent in total points in the second study, with per-operation gains of 18.5 to 34.2 percent [+M]
- Pupils of the same grade show enormous individual differences in initial adding ability and in gain from equal practice [~W]
- Equal practice increases rather than reduces initial ability differences in addition within the same grade [~W]
Related Strategies¶
Examples¶
-
Key Sources¶
- H. H. Hahn and E. L. Thorndike. (1914). Some Results of Practice in Addition Under School Conditions. The Journal of Educational Psychology, Volume V, Number 2. https://www.google.com/search?q=Hahn+Thorndike+1914+Some+Results+of+Practice+in+Addition+Under+School+Conditions
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
strategy |
id |
speed-drills-improve-addition-accuracy |
title |
Properly administered speed drills in arithmetic to improve both amount done correctly and accuracy |
description |
The article recommends speed drill in addition as an effective classroom practice: distributed practice in adding columns under school conditions raised the number of examples done correctly while maintaining or impro... |
status |
review |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-23 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — h-h-hahn-and-e-l-thorndike-1914 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.