Most and Least: Exploring Comparison Language With Integers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 22
  In Roundtable Session: Language Use and Mathematics Learning

Abstract

Across decades of study, research indicates young children more accurately make comparisons involving positive adjectives than their polar opposites. Our research investigates how language use (specifically, question phrasing for integer comparisons) affects students’ thinking. The study took place at two public schools in a rural Midwestern district, and consisted of 88 second grade and 70 fourth grade students. Results suggest that double negative language causes the most interference (when asked to find the “least cold” integer), as well as when numbers did not align with words used for comparisons (picking the “hottest” of three negatives). The results for comparing positive and negative integers provide further evidence that categories constrained students’ thinking and suggest a need for working with directed magnitudes.

Authors

• Laura Bofferding, Purdue University

• Sherri Farmer, Purdue University