Making Sense of Numbers: Children’s Understanding of Place-Value Concept

• In Event: Poster Session 20
  In Poster Session: Developing Number Sense in K-8

Abstract

Digits in a number may carry different values depending on their positions in the number. This is called place-value concept. This study developed a novel task to tap children's place-value concept through their conception of quantities, which was in turn reflected by their counting strategies. A group of preschoolers and first-graders was clustered into three levels of place-value understanding based on their counting strategies. Children with the lowest level of place-value understanding always counted from one or counted erroneously, whereas those with the highest level of understanding counted by grouping in tens. Children with poor place-value understanding also performed poorly in various numerical tasks. Implications for assessing children's place-value understanding were discussed.

Authors

• Winnie Wai Lan Chan, The University of Hong Kong

• Terry K. Au, The University of Hong Kong

• Joey Tang, The University of Hong Kong