The development of place value concepts at year 3 level

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore the validity of a framework established by Jones et al., (1996) that evaluates pupils place value understanding. The study was carried out with year three pupils in a private school in order to validate the framework established by Jones et al., (1996). In the validation of the framework the problems were adapted in order to be adequate for the Maltese context. Twelve mixed ability year three pupils were selected randomly to validate this study. One to one clinical interviews were utilised to attempt a description of the pupils understanding of place value concepts and these were video recorded to obtain feedback on the pupils reasoning in working the problems. The interview was carried out by means of a problem centred approach. Four constructs were set in order to investigate the pupils' knowledge of place value namely counting, partitioning, grouping and number relationships. The validity of each construct was investigated and its importance on the pupil's conceptual understanding of place value. This study showed that sometimes pupils apply procedures such as algorithms in solving the problems and get correct answers without understanding why they are doing so. The pupils over reliance on paper and pencil methods to work the problems and their inability to work mentally problems that involved more than two digits were also noted.