Kangourou sans Frontières

This article presents the results of a small-scale, comparative study on the perceived impact that having students enter Mathematics competitions has on Mathematics teachers in Puerto Rico, Switzerland and the UK and on their classroom practice. The study surveyed a small number of Mathematics teachers in the three countries who teach in both public and private schools and in both rural and urban regions. The perceived advantages and disadvantages to students from taking part in competitions and to teachers who have students taking part in competitions are discussed and the findings compared across the three countries. The effect that Mathematics competitions have on the identification and development of the mathematical talent of students is considered together with the contribution of these activities to the academic environment of the classroom. For the teachers who did have students taking Mathematics competitions, the limitations of entry and the different methods in which teachers prepare or assist students to prepare for the competitions are compared between countries. Since the study is small in scale, no firm conclusions are drawn but suggestions are made as to where future, larger scale, studies might be carried out to see if the classroom experiences of all could be positively influenced by exposure to Mathematics competitions.
ZDM, Mathematics Education, Springer (Vol.54, Nr.5, pp.941-959)
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Notices of the AMS (Vol.69, Nr.11, pp.1956-1960)
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We use data from a children mathematics contest in Israel that involved a first unmonitored online stage at home and a second monitored stage in class, both with the same difficulty level. The performance deterioration from the first to the second stage allows to estimate the dishonesty in the unmonitored first stage (mostly in the form of being helped by the parents or older siblings). We also analyze dishonesty using a set of 3–4 problems that appeared in both tests. Contrary to much of the literature on gender effects in dishonesty, in our data girls were not more honest than boys. The sample consists of children in second to sixth grades, and we find that older children are significantly more honest. A stronger socio-economic level of the city was associated with more cheating. Children from religious schools tended to be more honest than children from secular schools. We also discuss other potential reasons for differences between performance in the two stages, such as pressure and stress, but conclude that they are secondary to the effects of dishonesty.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (Vol.169, pp 143-157)
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In this paper we briefly explain what Math Kangaroo is. This is followed by a representative sample of Kangaroo questions, varying over all ages and all areas of mathematics that are covered by this competition. The paper concludes with the analysis of some statistical data and suggestions about how Math Kangaroo and this type of questions may be used in Math Clubs.
Espacio Matemático (Vol.1, Nr.2, pp.74-91)
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In this paper we will outline the history of the mathematical competition Kangaroo, describe the structure of the organisation behind it and in particular show a sample of past questions to give a flavour of what this competition is about. It should be underlined that Math Kangaroo is a popularising maths competition which is organised on a non-profit basis.
Mathematics Competitions Journal of the WFNMC (Vol.33, Nr.2, pp. 48-66)
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The issue of attracting girls to mathematics has captured our attention when we were analyzing data from the final stage of the Kangaroo mathematics contest in Israel. With general finding showing boys having better results, further analysis of differences across Grades 2-6 indicates that in some grades the gap is smaller than in others. For instance, only insignificant differences were found in Grade 4 for all difficulty levels. Furthermore, on some tasks, across all five grades, the girls' performance was better than the boys'. In this respect, continuous investigation is needed to ascertain whether a certain trend exists and if so, what might be the possible factors that make it happen. Furthermore, qualitative data could be collected and analyzed about young students’ thinking when solving different tasks to uncover other possible hidden factors.
Mediterranean Journal for Research in Mathematics Education (Vol.16, pp 19-31)
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The issue of attracting girls to mathematics has captured our attention when we were analyzing data from the final stage of the Kangaroo mathematics contest in Israel. With general finding showing boys having better results, further analysis of differences across Grades 2-6 indicates that in some grades the gap is smaller than in others. For instance, only insignificant differences were found in Grades 3- 4 for all difficulty levels. Furthermore, on some tasks, the girls' performance was better than the boys'. In this respect, continuous investigation is needed to examine possible factors that make it happen. Furthermore, qualitative data could be collected and analyzed about young students’ thinking when solving different tasks to uncover other possible hidden factors that influence mathematical performance by girls in Kangaroo contest.
Proceedings of the 11th International MCG Conference (pp 87-94)
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In the few years since the Kangaroo Contest arrived in Israel, we have discovered that all the winners in grades 2-6 succeeded in spatial abilities (SA)-oriented tasks. In this study, we investigate a potential relationship between spatial abilities and mathematical performance (focusing on non-standard problems) in mathematically-motivated students (MMS) who participated in the Kangaroo Contest. We also sought to ascertain whether the correlation between scores of SA tasks and the rest [of the] non-standard problems (RNSP) in the contest is age-dependent. A strong correlation between SA tasks and mathematical performance, together with well-known malleable spatial abilities can lead us to the conclusion that the development of spatial abilities in early childhood is necessary as a predictor of later mathematics achievement. This issue is important for students at all levels and especially for MMS, some of whom will later become mathematically promising students
Journal of Mathematics and System Science (Vol.7, pp.154-163)
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