Teaching Addition and Substraction Facts: A Chinese Perspective

In its Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, the NCTM suggests that fluency with basic addition and subtraction number combinations is a goal in teaching whole-number computation (NCTM 2000, p. 84). A mastery of lower-order skills instills confidence in students and facilitates higher-order thinking. The ability to automatically recall facts strengthens mathematical ability, mental mathematics, and higher-order mathematical learning. Without this automation, students have difficulty performing advanced operations.