The relationship between Kumon and achievement in mathematics

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship between participation in the Kumon Mathematics programme and children’s achievement in Mathematics and whether or not this relationship is different for children of varying academic abilities. Twenty-two students in grades four through six participated in the study. A nonexperimental, causal comparative research design was employed to answer the research question. Children were administered the Canadian Achievement Test, Third Edition (CAT-3) and the Canadian Cognitive Abilities Test (CCAT) shortly after beginning the Kumon programme. Six months later, the CAT-3 was re-administered. Results suggest that there may be a significant relationship between participation in the Kumon programme and development in computation skills (p = 0.053), but not with development in mathematical reasoning skills (p = 0.867). Results also suggest that there is a significant, negative relationship between pretest computation scores and gains made in computation skills (p = 0.005). The conclusions drawn from the results of this study are that Kumon may be more effective as a remediation programme than it is as an enrichment programme. More specifically, Kumon may be a more effective remediation programme for computation skills versus mathematical reasoning skills. However, there are major limitations to the current study, namely a small sample size. As such, statistical analyses were made for exploratory purposes only and no statements can be made regarding the effectiveness of Kumon for children.