When I, for a couple of years ago, saw an advertisement of Mattekungen (Math King Swedish language version) and saw that Mattekungen had installations in 70 % of Finnish schools, I became curious. I remember that something like "No pupil has to fail in learning mathematics" was written in the advertisement. Because I also know that Finnish pupils have done well in mathematics in the international level, I did the math.

I am employed as a municipal special education teacher in the municipality of Vaggeryd and do not work in any individual school. Foremost, I work within the grades 1-9. I work by order of administration chiefs/school principals and my challenge is to regard how we as teachers can support the pupils who have special needs in their different kinds of learning styles. This is where I realized the possibilities of Mattekungen.

I know from experience that in every school and in every class, there are pupils with special needs and therefore they also learn in different ways. The modern education deals with different kinds of learning styles and this is where Mattekungen is one of many good solutions to meet the pupil with.

Many times, pupils who have difficulties in learning also have difficulties in concentration. Many times, I have how different it is for a pupil like this to work with the computer, as well with educational programs as other alternative solutions. Suddenly, the concentration disturbance of a pupil becomes much smaller. Moreover, the work motivation increases when the exercises are made on a computer screen. I realized that, with the help of Mattekungen, it would really be possible to support the pupils who have difficulties in learning mathematics.

By slow but sure degrees, the teachers in Vaggeryd are starting to learn the simple tricks in Mattekungen and have started to let especially those pupils who have special needs work with the program. The reason why there are restrictions is that often there are only one or two computers in a class room. Several pupils experience this as they were playing a computer game and therefore they have no resistance against studying mathematics with the help of Mattekungen.

I have also noticed that exercises in Mattekungen do not bore pupils, even though many exercises consist of skill exercises. The variation inside of an exercise group is big enough. And if the pupil needs to exercise more, it is possible to repeat the same group of exercises. The teacher can also select more exercises of the same topic and the pupil can exercise until all the answers are correct. It feels almost like a competition against one self. For the teacher, it is easy to look at the pupil's results. The best result in each group of exercises is saved in the database. It is also stimulating that the pupils can print a diploma when all the exercises in an exercise group have been done. This can also increase the motivation, in the way that the pupil can exercise until all the answers are correct, and after that he/she is allowed to print a diploma.

Other day, I made a test with one pupil to see if Mattekungen could stimulate this pupil. Earlier, I had heard from the teacher that during the math lessons, this pupil only finishes off a very limited amount of exercises with paper and pencil. I let this pupil work with Mattekungen about 20 minutes. During this time, the pupil had done altogether 45 exercises. Now, I know that it is not the amount of exercises that is crucial but especially with this pupil, certain things have to become frayed until they can be fortified.

In my opinion, the tree structure is a clever function. In tree structure, the exercise groups are not divided into grades. For example, if the teacher wants to know how well the pupil has succeeded in a special topic, the pupil can exercise until the exercises become too difficult. Then, the teacher understands what is the zone of proximal development in which learning takes place, according to Vygotskij. There is no risk for a pupil older than 12 years to feel like a failure when he/she is making exercises of a lower grade.

Additionally, one of the finesses in Mattekungen is that the teachers by themselves can create new exercises if they want. (NOTE! I have not managed to do this yet, but I am willing to learn how to do it). In case the teacher wants, is it possible to print the exercises also.

In Mattekungen, there are also different kinds of tests including exercises that the pupils are supposed to manage. Depending on the pupil, the teacher can either ask the pupil to make a test before training or, as I would prefer, after the pupil has had a possibility to improve the results by training. In this context, I am particularly thinking of pupils who have special needs and who most often have weak self-esteem.

If we only had been so lucky that there were more computers in the schools, I could imagine a whole class being stimulated by having a chance to study with Mattekungen.

I can also imagine that Mattekungen can be used with those pupils who do not pass all the parts in the national tests. That is when Mattekungen can be used as a method to fill the gaps of one's mathematics knowledge, e.g. fraction, decimals, geometry, statistics etc.

Gunnel Wendick

Special education teacher