The development of the Maltese-English numeracy test for primary school children in Malta

Abstract

This research is about the development of the Maltese-English Numeracy Test (MENT) and how primary school children in Malta perform on numeracy tasks. Two hundred, 8 to 9 year old children (Year 4) from state, church and independent schools participated in this study. The sample included 150 typically developing children and 50 children with reported learning and / or communication difficulties. The children’s parent(s)/legal guardian(s) and class teacher completed a questionnaire which asked about language practices and math performance. Performance on the MENT, the Basic Number Screening Test [BNST] (Gillham, Hesse & McCarty, 2016) and school mid- and end-year exam results was compared across five independent variables: gender, ability, school type, school language and home language. Results show that the highest scores were obtained in the Number and counting subtests whilst the lowest were obtained in the Word problems and Calculation subtest. Gender and home language did not impact performance on MENT. Ability, school type, and school language may indicate success (or lack thereof) on numeracy tasks. Reliability and validity studies confirmed that the MENT is a useful measure to obtain a profile of a child’s numeracy abilities and can be used by professionals as a numeracy screen with children in Malta.