Evaluation of the ‘Improving Working Memory + Arithmetic’ intervention

Photo by Andor Bujdoso/Adobe Stock

What is the issue?

Improving Working Memory + Arithmetic (IWM+A) is a targeted intervention designed by researchers at the University of Oxford and delivered by teaching assistants in primary schools, aiming to improve the numeracy skills of children who show low attainment in arithmetic at the end of Key Stage 1 (children aged five to seven). The intervention uses the concept of 'Working Memory', which refers to the ability to keep information in mind and to use it to guide behaviour without the support of external cues.

The IWM+A intervention aims to support children in learning strategies to develop their attention and memory and to organise information about numbers and operations (addition and subtraction) in their long-term memory. A previous efficacy trail of the intervention, aimed at testing whether IWM+A could work in schools under best possible conditions, found an impact of an additional three months progress in number skills compared to children in the control condition.

How did we help?

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) commissioned RAND Europe to undertake an effectiveness trial of IWM+A with pupils in Year 3 (ages seven to eight), in order to test a scalable model of the intervention under everyday conditions in a larger number of schools than had previously been studied.

The primary research question was: What is the difference in number skills, measured by the number skills subtest of the British Ability Scales (BAS3), of pupils in schools receiving IWM+A in comparison to those pupils in control schools receiving business as usual?

To answer this question, we led a two-arm randomised control trial comparing outcomes for Year 3 pupils receiving the intervention with a control group of pupils who received business-as-usual maths teaching. Over 200 schools and almost 2,000 pupils took part in the trial, which began in the 2021/2022 academic year and ended in the 2021/2022 academic year. The delivery period of the intervention was extended due to disruption as a result of COVID-19.

What did we find?

Pupil attrition was higher than expected in this trial, due to issues with the administration of the BAS3 test and administrators being unable to visit all schools twice. This attrition significantly means there is a degree of uncertainty around the trial’s findings. The data available indicated that:

Findings from this trial support findings from the previous efficacy trial and suggest that the IWM+A intervention works to improve pupils’ working memory and attention.
There is no evidence that IWM+A had an impact on Year 3 pupils’ number skills as measured by the BAS3.
There is no evidence that IWM+A had a differential impact on Year 3 pupils’ number skills as measured by the BAS3 for pupils eligible for free schools meals (FSM) compared to those not eligible for FSM.
There is a low impact on working memory for pupils’ taking part in IWM+A compared to pupils not taking part in IWM+A.
There is evidence that there was a low impact on attention for pupils’ taking part in IWM+A compared to pupils not taking part in IWM+A.

What can be done?

We recommend that future research is conducted to better understand the impact of the IWM+A intervention and others like it. For example, we suggest that future studies look at how skills in one-to-one or small group interventions are integrated into the classroom in order to understand why impact on working memory did not translate into maths skills or numeracy.

We also suggest that a long-term follow-up study of pupils in IWM+A intervention is conducted, to see if numeracy is impacted in the longer term.