A Competency Model of Place Value Understanding in South African Primary School Pupils
- Although the general development of mathematical abilities in primary school has been the focus of many researchers, the development of place value understanding has rarely been investigated to date. This is possibly due to the lack of conceptual approaches and empirical studies related to this topic. To fill this gap, a theory-driven and empirically validated model was developed that describes five sequential conceptual levels of place value understanding. The level sequence model gives us the ability to estimate general abilities and difficulties in primary school pupils in the development of a conceptual place value understanding. The level sequence model was tried and tested in Germany, and given that number words are very differently constructed in German and in the languages used in South African classrooms, this study aims to investigate whether this level sequence model can be transferred to South Africa. The findings based on the responses of 198 Grade 2-4 learners show that the English translation of the test items resultsAlthough the general development of mathematical abilities in primary school has been the focus of many researchers, the development of place value understanding has rarely been investigated to date. This is possibly due to the lack of conceptual approaches and empirical studies related to this topic. To fill this gap, a theory-driven and empirically validated model was developed that describes five sequential conceptual levels of place value understanding. The level sequence model gives us the ability to estimate general abilities and difficulties in primary school pupils in the development of a conceptual place value understanding. The level sequence model was tried and tested in Germany, and given that number words are very differently constructed in German and in the languages used in South African classrooms, this study aims to investigate whether this level sequence model can be transferred to South Africa. The findings based on the responses of 198 Grade 2-4 learners show that the English translation of the test items results in the same item level allocation as the original German test items, especially for the three basic levels. Educational implications are provided, in particular concrete suggestions on how place value might be taught according to the model and how to collect specific empirical data related to place value understanding.…
Author details: | Moritz Herzog, Antje EhlertORCiDGND, Annemarie Fritz |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/18117295.2017.1279453 |
ISSN: | 1811-7295 |
ISSN: | 2469-7656 |
Title of parent work (English): | African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education |
Publisher: | Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |
Place of publishing: | Abingdon |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2017/02/07 |
Publication year: | 2017 |
Release date: | 2022/06/13 |
Tag: | Place value; Rasch test modelling; mathematical concepts |
Volume: | 21 |
Number of pages: | 12 |
First page: | 37 |
Last Page: | 48 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Bildungswissenschaften / Department Grundschulpädagogik |
DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 37 Bildung und Erziehung / 370 Bildung und Erziehung |
5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 51 Mathematik / 510 Mathematik | |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Zentrale und wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen / Zentrum für Lehrerbildung |