Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …

Multiplicative thinking has been widely accepted as a critically important ‘big idea’ of mathematics and one which underpins much mathematical understanding beyond the primary years of schooling. It is therefore of importance to consider the capacity of children to think multiplicatively but also to...

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Main Author: Hurst, Chris
Format: Journal Article
Published: Lectito 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70162
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author Hurst, Chris
author_facet Hurst, Chris
author_sort Hurst, Chris
building Curtin Institutional Repository
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description Multiplicative thinking has been widely accepted as a critically important ‘big idea’ of mathematics and one which underpins much mathematical understanding beyond the primary years of schooling. It is therefore of importance to consider the capacity of children to think multiplicatively but also to consider the capacity of their teachers to teach multiplicative thinking in a conceptual manner. This article focusses specifically on the conceptual links between the multiplicative array, the notion of numbers of equal groups in the multiplicative situation, factors and multiples, the commutative property of multiplication, and the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. A study involving a large sample of primary school students found that whilst most students demonstrated an understanding of some of the aforementioned elements, hardly any of the students were able to connect the ideas or to explain them in terms of each other. As a consequence of the findings, the impact of teacher knowledge on children’s capacity to think multiplicatively was considered.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-701622019-01-22T04:58:38Z Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as … Hurst, Chris Multiplicative thinking has been widely accepted as a critically important ‘big idea’ of mathematics and one which underpins much mathematical understanding beyond the primary years of schooling. It is therefore of importance to consider the capacity of children to think multiplicatively but also to consider the capacity of their teachers to teach multiplicative thinking in a conceptual manner. This article focusses specifically on the conceptual links between the multiplicative array, the notion of numbers of equal groups in the multiplicative situation, factors and multiples, the commutative property of multiplication, and the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. A study involving a large sample of primary school students found that whilst most students demonstrated an understanding of some of the aforementioned elements, hardly any of the students were able to connect the ideas or to explain them in terms of each other. As a consequence of the findings, the impact of teacher knowledge on children’s capacity to think multiplicatively was considered. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70162 10.20897/ejsteme/78169 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Lectito fulltext
spellingShingle Hurst, Chris
Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title_full Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title_fullStr Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title_full_unstemmed Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title_short Children Have the Capacity to Think Multiplicatively, as long as …
title_sort children have the capacity to think multiplicatively, as long as …
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/70162