Dutch sixth graders' use of shortcut strategies in solving multidigit arithmetic problems

Strategy flexibility, adaptivity, and the use of clever shortcut strategies are of major importance in current primary school mathematics education worldwide. However, empirical results show that primary school students use such shortcut strategies rather infrequently. The aims of the present study were to analyze the extent to which Dutch sixth graders (12-year-olds) use shortcut strategies in solving multidigit addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems, to what extent student factors and task instructions affected this frequency of shortcut strategy use, and to what extent the strategies differed in performance. A sample of 648 sixth graders from 23 Dutch primary schools completed a paper-and-pencil task of 12 multidigit arithmetic problems, designed to elicit specific shortcut strategies such as compensation. Based on the students' written work, strategies were classified into whether a shortcut strategy was used or not. Results showed that the frequency of shortcut strategies ranged between 6 and 21% across problem types, and that boys and high mathematics achievers were more inclined to use shortcut strategies. An explicit instruction to look for a shortcut strategy increased the frequency of these strategies in the addition and multiplication problems, but not in the subtraction and division problems. Finally, the use of shortcut strategies did not yield higher performance than using standard strategies. All in all, spontaneous as well as stimulated use of shortcut strategies by Dutch sixth graders was not very common.