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When Does Successful Comparison Of Decimals Reflect Conceptual Understanding?

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When Does Successful Comparison Of Decimals Reflect Conceptual Understanding?

Author: Anne Roche & Doug Clarke

Publication Year: 2004

Abstract

Forty-eight students across Grades 3 to 6 were interviewed individually using a range of tasks, where the mathematical focus was decimal knowledge and understanding. Students who may be categorised as ?apparent experts? on a decimal comparison test were found to differ considerably in their ability to perform ordering and benchmarking tasks. Those students whose explanations when comparing decimals reflected a greater place value knowledge and who were not following a rule which ultimately treats decimals as whole numbers, appeared to have a more conceptual understanding of the decimal numeration system and were able to apply this understanding to more difficult (or novel) tasks.

Type: research paper

Anne Roche and Doug Clarke

When Does Successful Comparison Of Decimals Reflect Conceptual Understanding?

Short Communications & Round Tables

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MERGA Paper Template – to be used to write the abstracts which are then submitted to the MERGA conference website
MERGA Publication Agreement – to be submitted on the MERGA conference website at the time of the abstract submission

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Short communications are suitable for reports on research in mathematics education that do not fully meet the requirements for published papers. These might include works in preliminary stages, reports of pilot projects, initial reviews of literature, ideas or suggestions for future study, and briefer discussions of particular issues. Short communications allow new researchers to obtain feedback on projects in a constructive and supportive environment, and foster the building of links between researchers with similar interests.

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