What should our goals be when we teach the basic facts?

Edward C. Rathmell
University of Northern Iowa

Over fifty years ago, William Brownell indicated that his goals for teaching basic facts were to have students be able to provide (1) an immediate response and (2) an explanation or verification that the fact is correct. Those two goals are still appropriate today. The second goal may not be as commonly accepted today as the first one is, but it is important. Research has shown that students, who can explain or verify basic facts, learn the facts sooner, are able to use them in mental computation with larger numbers, and remember them longer. Also, without these student explanations, it is more difficult for teachers to know if students understand, just know rotely, or were guessing.

Just how fast is an immediate response? There is no right or wrong answer to this. Each of you will have to make your own decision. Realistically, many students will never be able to respond to some of the facts in 1 second. Teachers, who expect students to complete all 100 facts for an operation in 2 minutes or less, are creating a situation where many students can not succeed. It simply takes many students longer than 1.2 seconds per problem to process the information and write their answer. On the other hand, if it takes as long as 10 seconds for a student to figure out a fact, will that student take the time and effort to use that fact in an estimation situation? Probably not.

From years of experience, almost all students can learn to solve facts in about 3 seconds. As teachers help the class work towards that goal of 3 seconds, many of the students are able to solve the fact problems in 2 seconds or less. You may decide to select a different number of seconds as your goal. Just be realistic in your expectations for students. Do not set up goals that many students can never achieve.

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