The effects of the calculation class in elementary school on student outcomes

Abe, Mayuko; Ohtake, Fumio; Sano, Shinpei

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2025, 76, 101360

Number of Access:321（2025-07-05 15:10 Counts）

Identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/11094/100974

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Title
The effects of the calculation class in elementary school on student outcomes
Creator
CreatorName
Abe, Mayuko
NRID
1000050176913 1000050176913
ORCID
0000-0002-8825-7446 0000-0002-8825-7446
researchmap permalink
ohtake ohtake
Scopus Author ID
6701666319 6701666319
CreatorName
Ohtake, Fumio
NRID
1000080452481 1000080452481
CreatorName
Sano, Shinpei
Subject
Calculation class
Elementary school
Mathematics
Description
Abe M., Ohtake F., Sano S.. The effects of the calculation class in elementary school on student outcomes. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 76, 101360 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjie.2025.101360.
Abstract
We examine the impact of introducing a calculation class on the academic outcomes of elementary school students. The calculation class is characterized by instruction using an abacus (soroban in Japanese), a traditional calculation tool in Asia, and teaching by abacus instructors. The calculation class was introduced with time lags across schools and birth cohorts, which allows us to exploit the difference-in-differences strategy. Using administrative data from Amagasaki City in Japan, we find that the calculation class increases mathematics and Japanese scores by 0.145 and 0.0874 standard deviations, respectively. To explore possible mechanisms, we investigate the impact of the calculation class on students’ non-cognitive skills, academic behaviors at home, and the classroom environment. The results indicate that the calculation class improves non-cognitive skills, such as grit and motivation for studying. Furthermore, we find heterogeneous effects across gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and previous academic scores. Our estimation results show that the calculation class has a larger impact on the mathematics scores of female students, students from low-SES families, and previously low-performing students. Finally, we explore the long-term effects and find that, for female students, the impact tends to persist for one year after the class ends, but after that, the effects fade out.
Publisher
Academic Press Inc.
Source Title
Journal of the Japanese and International Economies
Volume (Issue)
76
Page
101360
Date of Issued
2025-06-01
Language
English
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/11094/100974
PISSN
08891583
Relation.isIdenticalTo
DOI (Publisher Version)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjie.2025.101360
Access Rights
open access
CopyRight
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
oaire:version
Version of Record
Category
学術雑誌論文 Journal Article