The Study On Mathematical Calculation Ability Of Children With Mild Mental Retardation Learning In Regular Class

Mathematical calculation is logical operation carried out according to math rules. It's very important in individual learning and daily life. Most of students with mild mental retardation are learning in regular class now, however, at present our country doesn't have detailed study in connection with their calculation ability. Teachers are not very clear about these students' education requirement. Therefore, we need an investigation of these students' calculation ability. The result of study could provide basis for the operation of teaching, and it has important theoretical significance and practical value.Informants of this study are 244 students with mild mental retardation learning in regular class, all of whom are in grade 3～5 and come from Shanghai 14 districts. This study focus on special students' calculation ability, including calculation of natural number, decimal, negative number, fraction and the use of simple method; etc. And by the ordinary student as control group, researcher further discussed the gap between two kinds of students. The results showed that:First, overall, students with mild mental retardation has a certain mathematical calculation ability. In the basic number knowledge and calculation flexibility aspects, students' ability rises along with the grade growth. In the calculation accuracy and word problem solution aspects, students in 4^th grade get the lowest score and students in 5^th grade get the highest.Second, there are three main reasons for mark deduction of mild mental retardation children's papers. They didn't answer som?? the questions; the results of calculation are wrong; some children didn't understand the method of operation. Copying the wrong number and operation order mistakes are not the main reason for loss.Third, there are big disparities between mild mental retardation children's calculation ability and normal students'. More than half of special children got lower than 30% points of the test paper, while most normal children could get more than 90% points.Fourth, subject type and item difficulty have great influence on children's marks. Special children got much more points on oral arithmetic problems than vertical calculation and recursion equation calculating.Fifth, whether children with mild mental retardation or normal students, all need to strengthen the training of simple method, which could improve the accuracy of calculation.Based on above results, the researcher proposed the following suggestions for the education of children with mild mental retardation: suitable deletion of the course content, reasonable arrangement of the training time, acquisition of good study habits, more taining of simple methods and so on.This research has reference value for both content adjustment and appraisal standard system grade in special children's calculation learning.