THE EFFECTS OF FINGERMATH, OR CHISANBOP UPON THE MATHEMATICAL COMPUTATIONAL ABILITY AND MATHEMATICAL ATTITUDES OF NINTH GRADE GENERAL MATHEMATICS SLOW LEARNERS WITH ATTENTION GIVEN TO THE VARIABLES OF SEX AND LEARNING STYLES

Purpose of the Study. The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of Fingermath in improving computational skills and enhancing student attitudes toward mathematics. The study sought to determine if the effectiveness of Fingermath was related to student learning styles, classified as tactual or non-tactual.;Procedure. Subjects in this study were ninth grade general mathematics slow learners in four randomly selected general mathematics classrooms in a central Louisiana parish. Two classes were randomly selected to serve as the experimental group and were instructed in Fingermath basics. The other two classes comprised the control group and received no Fingermath instruction. Fifty subjects participated in the study, twenty-seven in the experimental group and twenty-three in the control group. All subjects were pretested and posttested with the Criterion Referenced Mathematics Test of Basic Computation Skills and Revised Math Attitude Scale. The Learning Style Inventory identified experimental subjects as tactual or non-tactual learners. The sex of each experimental subjects was identified.;One-way analysis of covariance was used to determine if the mean computation scores and mean attitude scores differed significantly in each of the eight comparisons of the experimental group and control group and subgroups within the experimental group.;Findings. Statistical analysis of data revealed that no significant difference exists between the computation means for ninth grade general mathematics slow learners in each of the following comparisons: Fingermath students and no Fingermath students, male tactual Fingermath students and female tactual Fingermath students, male Fingermath students and female Fingermath students, and tactual Fingermath students and non-tactual Fingermath students.;Analysis of attitude means revealed no significant difference for ninth grade general mathematics slow learners for each of the following comparisons: Fingermath students and no Fingermath students, male tactual Fingermath students and female tactual Fingermath students, male Fingermath students and female Fingermath students, and tactual Fingermath students and non-tactual Fingermath students.;Conclusions. Fingermath instruction does not enhance mathematics computation ability or attitudes toward mathematics for any of the eight comparisons made; therefore, Fingermath is not as powerful as promoters have claimed in the surveyed literature.