Young children's idiosyncratic written algorithms for addition

The research reported in this paper is concerned with the natural written algorithms created by nine- and ten-year olds when solving simple addition problems. It was undertaken with one hundred and seventeen children in Year 5 (Grade 4), who, because of their involvement in the Calculator Aware Number Curriculum (CAN) Project, had not been taught traditional pencil-and-paper algorithms for the basic operations. This provided an opportunity to investigate their responses when asked to solve a selection of additive word problems on paper without the use of calculators. The children's solutions were analyzed in terms of directionality of working and the emergence or otherwise of standard or idiosyncratic written algorithms. A preference for a horizontal layout and for working from left to right was shown to exist, and the children produced a wide variety of original and creative written algorithms.