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Student and teacher reasoning on rational numbers, multiplicative structures, and related topics


Author(s): 

Jere Confrey, Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Education, Department of Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education and The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, College of Education, North Carolina State University. USA.

Language: 

English

Keywords: 

Rational number, Multiplicative structures, Syntheses of research, Learning trajectories

Abstract

Student and teacher reasoning on rational numbers, multiplicative structures, and related topics have been heavily researched by the international community. Despite all of this work, it remains a challenging area for students to learn based on data from international studies (PISA, TIMSS). My research group has compiled a massive database on this research (n>500 studies) and have conducted syntheses across the five strands of multiplication and division: area and volume; fractions, ratios and proportion, and rate; decimals and percent; and scaling and similarity. A pool of assessment items from these studies has also been accumulated. In this lecture, I will report on how the syntheses were conducted, describe the definitions of terminology proposed as a result of the review, summarize the empirical findings and provide information on how others might access the database. In addition, I will report on our approach to using the database to propose a set of learning trajectories for each subarea as warranted by a review of research and how we are linking these to assessment formats to build diagnostic measures of student progress.