Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-281). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Children’s counting strategies, such as counting from one or by groups of tens, reflect how much they understand the place-value structure of numbers. In a novel task for assessing place-value concept, namely the strategic counting task, children were asked to count small squares, which were arranged with or without correspondence to the base-ten number structure. The counting strategies of kindergarteners and first graders revealed that children developed from perceiving number as an undivided entity to seeing it as a collection of independent groups of tens, indicating a trend of increasing place-value understanding. First graders’ strategic counting task scores at the end of fall semester predicted their mathematical achievement at the end of spring semester, over and above age, intelligence, and measures of simple counting, number representation, place-value understanding, and arithmetic calculation. Based on item analysis, a brief version containing only five items was developed for more user-friendly classroom administration. First graders’ scores in the brief version uniquely predicted their mathematical achievement even at the end of second grade. Growth curve modeling revealed that children who were low mathematics achievers at the end of second grade had already shown poor performance in the brief version in early first grade and remained lagging behind their peers over the 18 months. Early poor understanding of place-value concept, then, seems to persist to upper grade and impede mathematical development. Implications for early support to children with difficulties in place-value concept were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Vi använder oss av ett positionssystem när vi skriver tal vilket ofta är en oreflekterad kunskap, denna kunskap förväntas elever tillägna sig redan i årskurs 1-3. Vi har under vår verksamhetsförlagda utbildning sett att vissa elever har svårt att förstå detta system. Därför är syftet med denna litteraturöversikt att undersöka vad befintlig forskning säger om elevers möjligheter och begränsningar i lärandet av positionssystemet. Materialet samlades in genom systematisk litteratursökning i flera databaser. Litteraturen som sedan analyserades och kategoriserades bestod av tretton stycken forskningsartiklar, en avhandling och en proceeding. Resultatet visade att språket är en viktig faktor i förståelsen av positionssystemet. Utvecklingen av förståelsen för positionssystemet tar lång tid men kan stödjas av undervisning som innehåller tio-grupperingar, alternativa räkneord och rätt konkret material. Förståelsen för positionssystemet visade sig även ha ett starkt samband med goda färdigheter i addition.

An understanding of whole number place value is a critical component of second-grade mathematics. This understanding of place value provides the foundational concept for operations with whole numbers. The ability to understand the concept of place value and transfer that understanding to teaching addition and subtraction are often problems associated with teachers’ limited pedagogical content knowledge. Teachers must understand teaching place value does not consist of merely teaching students to name the digit in a particular location. A possible solution to the problem is to provide professional development trainings and implementation support through instructional coaching focused on the teaching of place value in a conceptual manner consistent with best pedagogical practices. Therefore, the purpose of this mixed method study is to describe the pedagogical content knowledge of second-grade teachers in order to answer the research question: What can you expect to see in the classroom teaching of place value from second-grade teachers who have attended 12 hours of professional development and have received instructional coaching? Quantitative data includes the use of the Learning Mathematics for Teaching assessment paired with participant observations, discussions, and interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ thinking. The participants of this study are four second-grade teachers from a rural school district outside of Houston, Texas. Each of the four participants attended 12 hours of professional development and received instructional coaching support through classroom observation with post-observation discussions, a model lesson, and instructional planning. The results of the study show that every participant implemented activities from the professional development, used questioning modeled by the presenter during the sessions, and discussed critical concepts in their classrooms. Additionally, teacher pedagogical content knowledge did improve after 12 hours of professional development and instructional coaching. However, the participants believe that further support should be given through a more detailed scope and sequence, which provides information as to when and how the new concepts and activities need to be incorporated in the classroom.

In an attempt to examine student understanding of place value with third graders, I conducted action research with a small group of girls to determine if my use of instructional strategies would encourage the development of conceptual understanding of place value. Strategies that have been found to encourage conceptual development of place value, such as use of the candy factory, were incorporated into my instruction. Instructional strategies were adjusted as the study progressed to meet the needs of the students and the development of their understanding of place value. Student explanations of their use of strategies contributed to my interpretation of their understanding. Additionally, I examined the strategies that the students chose to use when adding or subtracting multidigit numbers. Student understanding was demonstrated through group discussion and written and oral explanations. My observations, anecdotal records and audio recordings allowed me to further analyze student understanding. The results of my research seem to corroborate previous research studies that emphasize the difficulty that many students have in understanding place value at the conceptual level.

As part of their mathematical knowledge for teaching (Ball et al., 2008), teachers must have a well-connected understanding of the subject matter they teach and must know this content in deeper and different ways than other adults. This is essential for quality teaching and learning, as teachers’ knowledge and understanding impact the nature and effectiveness of instruction (e.g., Hill et al., 2005). Since decimal concepts are part of elementary curriculum (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), and can be difficult for children and adults (e.g., Jacobson et al., 2020; Kastberg & Morton, 2014; Steinle & Stacey, 1998), mathematics teacher educators must consider how we can strengthen support for prospective teachers of elementary school (PTs), to deepen their mathematical knowledge for teaching decimals. This is of particular importance as existing research provides few rich characterizations of PTs’ decimal understanding and is limited in explorations into connections and mechanisms that may improve that understanding. In this dissertation, I attend to the research question, following engagement with rich conceptually focused decimal instruction, how may PTs’ conceptualizations of decimal place value and magnitude, and factors which have influenced this understanding, be characterized? I address some gaps in current literature by considering how robust decimal understanding for PTs may be connected to and grounded in their broader knowledge of the base-ten place value system, and to the decimal models which they use. Following an introduction to the problem in Chapter One, and a review of relevant literature in Chapter Two, Chapter Three reports on a study in which I examined how PTs characterized the base-ten place value system, distinguishing between responses crafted by PTs who had demonstrated different levels of decimal understanding. This allowed me to identify elements of base-ten place value understanding which likely supported PTs’ thinking about decimal place value and magnitude. In the study in Chapter Four, I explored the nature of PTs’ decimal understanding and its relationships with decimal square or number line models that they used, finding that certain model features facilitated PTs’ ability to think about decimal place value and magnitude in ways that are more likely to be productive and appropriate for teaching. These two empirical studies are both qualitative content analyses (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) carried out in the context of the Elementary Mathematics Project (Chapin et al., 2021). Though implications for teachers and teacher educators are incorporated in Chapters Three and Four, Chapter Five is a practitioner article in which I focus more directly on these implications, making recommendations about important model features and areas of emphasis for decimal instruction. Chapter Six looks across the dissertation, discussing overarching themes and directions for future research. Results of this research may be used to support mathematics teacher educators in carrying out effective decimal instruction with their PT students, since better understanding of PTs’ thinking can help mathematics teacher educators to make informed curricular and pedagogical decisions to foster PT development. This is of high importance, since as PTs increase and enrich their decimal understanding, their students’ opportunities to learn will also expand. / 2027-04-30T00:00:00Z

This investigation examined Chinese children's development of place-value numeration concepts from ages 3 through 9, compared the development of place-value understanding of these Chinese children with that of American and Genevan children whose performances had been described in the literature, and examined the influence of adult assistance during Chinese children's performances on some of the place-value tasks.

The purpose of this case study was to understand whether or not the use of an invented number system, called Orpda, helped teachers develop a deeper understanding of place value in hopes that this will translate into their own teaching of place value concepts. Thirteen teachers enrolled in a graduate mathematics education course served as the participants for this study. Data were collected from teachers’ reflections on various activities related to Orpda, pre- and post-Orpda concept maps teachers created, online discussions between the teachers, teacher demographic sheets, and an interview with the instructor of the course. Analysis of the teachers' reflections revealed that Orpda increased teachers’ attention to three critical components necessary for developing a conceptual understanding of place value, namely unitizing, regrouping, and recognizing the meaning of different place values within a multi-digit number. In addition, Orpda encouraged teachers to reflect on their own teaching of place value. Comparing the structures of the teachers' pre-Orpda and post-Orpda concept maps showed changes in some cases but did not reveal clear patterns. Analysis of the categories teachers included in pre- and post-Orpda maps revealed that teachers were moving from a procedural to a more conceptual view of place value, as did the analysis of squared adjacency matrices created from each teacher's pre- and post-Orpda concept maps. Four conclusions can be drawn from this study: (a) Orpda increased teachers' attention to the importance of unitizing in place value, (b) Orpda encouraged teachers to reflect deeply on their thinking, (c) Concept maps show promise for revealing and documenting changes in conceptual understanding, and (d) Orpda increased teachers' attention to the importance of patterns in understanding place value. Further research is needed using Orpda with different groups and numbers of teachers, and in different settings, e.g., longer full semesters and teacher professional development meetings. Research exploring the use of follow-up interviews to accompany concept maps and enhance the assessment of conceptual understanding is also recommended. This study indicates two recommendations for practice in teacher education, the importance of a classroom environment that supports reflection, and the careful choosing of activities to provide appropriate challenge.

In recent years, the idea of language influencing the cognitive development of an understanding of place value has received increasing attention. This study explored the influence of using explicit number names on prekindergarten and kindergarten students’ ability to rote count, read two-digit numerals, model two-digit numbers, and identify the place value of individual digits in two-digit numerals. Through individual student interviews, preand post-assessments were administered to evaluate rote counting, reading five two-digit numerals, modeling five two-digit numbers, and identifying place value in two two-digit numerals. Chi-square tests for independence showed two significant relations: (1) the relationship between the control and treatment group membership on the postassessment of modeling two-digit numbers and (2) the relationship between place value identifications and group membership. Analysis of the children’s performance and error patterns revealed interesting differences between children taught with explicit number names and children taught with traditional number names. The improvement of the treatment group overall exceeded the improvement of the control group. This study indicates that teaching children to use explicit number names can, indeed, have a positive influence on their understanding of place value.

As escritas numéricas e o valor posicional do número são o tema desta pesquisa que tem como objetivos: investigar concepções construídas na interação criança-escrita numérica que contribuem para a construção do valor posicional característico do sistema de numeração decimal; identificar contribuições das notações de números multidígitos à conceituação do valor posicional do número, e verificar as formas cognitivas por meio das quais estas contribuições se efetivam. Consiste num estudo de análise qualitativa.Fundamenta-se na concepção epistemológica construtivista, e volta-se para as microaprendizagens presentes no processo de construção da compreensão do valor posicional e de apropriação da escrita numérica convencional de multidígitos. Envolveu nove alunos da segunda série do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola estadual do município de Erechim-RS, selecionados por sorteio a partir da realização de pré-testes com 44 crianças de três turmas nos quais foram avaliadas noções de composição aditiva, domínio da escrita numérica de multidígitos e do valor posicional. Os critérios utilizados para a seleção foram: compreensão da composição aditiva, não-compreensão do valor posicional e o não-domínio das escritas numéricas de multidígitos. Os alunos participantes da pesquisa, organizados em trios, participaram de onze situações didáticas ao longo do segundo semestre letivo do ano de 2005. A pesquisa evidenciou um processo construtivo não linear, no qual as crianças construíram concepções próximas ao valor posicional, à medida que as situações didáticas provocavam reflexões e sucessivas tomadas de consciência sobre as notações em si e sobre as relações entre escritas e agrupamentos. No que se refere ao valor posicional, a escrita numérica não sugeriu, de imediato, a possibilidade de formarem agrupamentos de acordo com as propriedades do sistema de numeração decimal, do mesmo modo que os agrupamentos (organizados dentro destes princípios) não sugeriram, num primeiro momento, a escrita numérica correspondente. Ambos, escritas e agrupamentos, num primeiro momento, significaram para as crianças a quantidade total representada tanto pelas escritas numéricas quanto pelos agrupamentos. Observou-se uma construção incipiente e progressiva dos princípios aditivo e multiplicativo do sistema, bem como da compreensão da organização do sistema em potências de dez, elementos fundamentais ao reconhecimento do valor relativo do algarismo. As notações, por si só, não foram “transparentes” às crianças e o aprendizado do valor posicional ocorreu a partir da reflexão sobre as relações entre os resultados das ações e sobre as próprias reflexões realizadas por abstrações reflexionantes e tomadas de consciência. / Numeric writings and the number place value are the theme of this research, which aims: to investigate conceptions built on the children-numeric writing interaction that contributes for the construction of place value characteristic of the decimal system; to identify contributions of multidigit numbers to the conceptualization of the number place value and; to verify the cognitive forms through which these contributions are effective. It is a study of qualitative analysis. It is grounded on the constructivist epistemological conception, and it turns to micro-learnings present in the process of construction of place value comprehension and of appropriation of the conventional numeric writing of multidigits. Nine fundamental second grade students from a public state school in the town of Erechim/RS were involved in the research, selected by assortment after the accomplishment of pre-tests with 44 children from three classes in which notions of additive composition, the understanding of numeric writing of multidigit and place value were evaluated. The criteria used for the selection were: comprehension of additive composition, the non-comprehension of place value and the non-dominance of numeric writings of multidigits. The participants of the research, organized in triads, participated in eleven didactic situations during the second school semester of 2005. The research evidenced a constructive, non-linear process, in which children built conceptions close to the place value, as the didactic situations provoked reflections and successive consciousness about notations and about the relations between writings and groupings. Regarding place value, the numeric writing did not suggest, at first, the possibility of forming groups according to the properties of decimal system, in the same manner that the groupings (organized within these principles) did not suggest immediately the correspondent numeric writing. In a first moment, both, writings and groupings, meant for the children the total quantity represented as for numeric writings as for groupings. An incipient and progressive construction of additive and multiplicative principles of the system was observed, as well as the comprehension of the system organization in potencies of tens, fundamental elements for the recognition of the number relative value. The notations, by themselves, were not “transparent” for the children and the learning of place value took place from the reflection about relations between action results and about the reflections accomplished by reflexive abstractions and consciousness. / Las escritas numéricas y el valor posicional del número son temas de esta pesquisa, que tiene como objetivos: investigar concepciones construidas en la interacción niñoescrita numérica que contribuyen para la construcción del valor posicional característico del sistema de numeración decimal; identificar contribuciones de las notaciones de números multidígitos a la conceptuación del valor posicional del número y verificar las formas cognitivas a través de las cuales estas contribuciones se efectúan. Consiste en un estudio de análisis cualitativo. Se fundamenta en la concepción epistemológica constructivista y se vuelve para los microaprendizajes presentes en el proceso de construcción de la comprensión del valor posicional y de apropiación de la escrita numérica convencional de multidígitos. Involucró nueve alumnos del segundo año de la Enseñanza Primaria – 2ª série do Ensino Fundamental – de una escuela estadual del municipio de Erechim-RS, seleccionados, por sorteo, a partir de la realización de pré-testes con 44 niños de tres grupos en los cuales fueron evaluados nociones de composición aditiva, el dominio de la escrita numérica de multidígitos y del valor posicional. Los criterios utilizados para la selección fueron: comprensión de la composición aditiva, no comprensión del valor posicional y el no dominio de las escritas numéricas de multidígitos. Los alumnos participantes de la pesquisa, organizados en triades, participaron de once situaciones-didácticas a lo largo del segundo semestre lectivo del año de 2005. La pesquisa evidenció un proceso constructivo, no linear, en el cual los niños construyeron concepciones próximas al valor posicional, a la medida que las situaciones didácticas provocaban reflexiones y sucesivas tomadas de conciencia sobre las notaciones en si y sobre las relaciones entre escritas y agrupamientos. A lo que se refiere al valor de posición, la escrita numérica no sugirió, de inmediato, la posibilidad de formar agrupamientos de acuerdo con las propiedades del sistema de numeración decimal, del mismo modo que las agrupaciones (organizados dentro de estos principios) no sugirieron de inmediato la escrita numérica correspondiente. Ambos, escritas y agrupamientos, en un primer momento, significaron para los niños la cuantidad total representada tanto por las escritas numéricas, cuanto por los agrupamientos. Se observó una construcción incipiente y progresiva de los principios aditivo y multiplicativo del sistema, bien como de la comprensión de la organización del sistema en potencias de diez, elementos fundamentales al reconocimiento del valor relativo del guarismo. Las notaciones, tan sólo, no fueron “transparentes” los niños y el aprendizaje del valor posicional ocurrió a partir de la reflexión sobre las relaciones entre los resultados de las acciones y sobre las propias reflexiones realizadas por abstracciones reflexionantes y tomadas de conciencia.