Insights into the usage and potential of the Calculation Field-app – primary school learners’ interpretations of the Auxiliary task

The integration of digital media into primary education holds great promise for supporting learners in developing their conceptual understanding. However, empirical evidence remains limited on how digital media may facilitate such understanding, particularly among young learners. This study investigates how primary school learners interpret the Auxiliary task when supported by a digital learning environment including the Calculation Field-App. The aim is to identify both potentials and challenges in using digital media to foster relational understanding between numerical, graphical, and enactive representations of mental calculation processes. Within a design-based research framework, the digital learning environment, comprising task sequences, scaffolds, and virtual manipulatives, was iteratively developed and refined across four cycles. The study involved 18 learners from grades 3–4 and data were collected through pair-based learning sessions, comprising 696 minutes of two-perspective video recordings that captured both interactional discourse and on-screen activity within the Calculation Field-App. To explore learners’ conceptual interpretations, the study applied interpretative interaction analysis, reconstructing turn-by-turn meaning-making processes and identifying how learners oriented to the dynamic features of the app. Findings indicate that learners leveraged the app’s dual-screen design to reflect upon original and modified numerical values, demonstrated increased awareness of stepwise modifications, and articulated nuanced conceptual understandings of modification and compensation. The Calculation Field-App and its ability to dynamically link multiple representations and externalize cognitive steps supports learners’ interpretational processes, although effective integration requires careful instructional scaffolding. These insights contribute to the ongoing discourse on the meaningful use of digital media in fostering learning processes in early education.