  Citation: Gliksman, Y.; Berebbi, S.; Henik, A. Math Fluency during Primary School. Brain Sci. 2022, 12, 371. https://doi.org/10.3390/ brainsci12030371 Academic Editors: Liane Kaufmann, Laura Zamarian, Guilherme Wood and Elise Klein Received: 13 January 2022 Accepted: 9 March 2022 Published: 11 March 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). brain sciences Article Math Fluency during Primary School Yarden Gliksman 1, * , Shir Berebbi 2 and Avishai Henik 2, * 1 Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer 4025000, Israel 2 Department of Psychology and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel; shirb300@gmail.com * Correspondence: yarden.gliksman@gmail.com (Y.G.); henik@bgu.ac.il (A.H.); Tel.: +972-9-8981379(Y.G.) Abstract: Math fluency is the ability to solve arithmetic facts quickly and accurately (i.e., addition and subtraction problems up to 20, and multiplication and division problems from the multiplication table). Curricula in primary school devote a significant period of time for learning and retrieval of arithmetic facts. Recently, a new computerized tool to assess math fluency—the BGU-MF (Ben-Gurion University Math Fluency) test—was developed and found to be a reliable and valid tool for adults. In the current study, we examine the performance of first to sixth-grade children in math fluency using the BGU-MF. The results present the performance of MF during childhood and emphasize that it continues to develop during primary school. Importantly, proficiency of MF differed by operations, and the automaticity of math facts was acquired in different grades. Moreover, we found that the BGU-MF is a reliable and valid tool not only for adults but also for children during primary school. Our study has educational implications for the teaching, practice, and retrieval of arithmetic facts. Keywords: math fluency; math facts; calculation and retrieval; arithmetic in primary school; arithmetic operations 1. Introduction Using numbers is an integral part of our life. We use numbers when we measure in cooking, find a page in a book, during sports activities, and so on. Specifically, simple calculations are an everyday activity, in adults’ life (e.g., calculating the number of invited guests for a family dinner) and in children’s life (e.g., calculating their pocket money). Understanding numbers and performing simple calculations efficiently are the building blocks of quantitative reasoning [1], and they were found to predict academic success and level of income [2,3]. Accordingly, the math education curriculum during primary school devotes a great deal of time to learning, practicing, memorizing, and retrieving simple arithmetic problems, known as math facts. Math facts are the basis for more advanced arithmetic, such as solving equations and verbal questions, carrying over problems, etc. Math facts are problems with operands from 0 to 10 with the four basic arithmetic operations: addition and subtraction, with answers between 0 to 20 (e.g., 9 + 5; 16 - 7), and multiplication and division from the multiplication table (e.g., 6 × 5; 45 ÷ 9). In Israel and in other OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, the arithmetic curriculum relates specifically to the learning of math facts. The first-grade curriculum includes learning addition and subtraction up to 20. The second grade includes more practice and memorization of addition and subtraction math facts, and by the end of the second grade, multiplication is taught as a repeated addition. In many cases, during the second grade, only multiplications with operands between 1 and 5 are covered. During the third grade, the full multiplication table is taught, as is the division operation. During the fourth grade, a mastery of all math facts for all operations should be attained [4]. In light of the time devoted to teaching math facts during primary school, how proficient are those students with math facts? A possible way to explore this question is by studying math fluency. Brain Sci. 2022, 12, 371. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12030371 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/brainsci