Coursework on base numeration systems and its influence on pre-service elementary teachers' understanding of place value understanding

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of base numeration system instruction on place value understanding for college elementary education majors. Participants in the study were students in two university mathematics classes, one class at a private college and one class at a public college. Both colleges were in the same southwestern United States city metropolitan area. Each participant completed the Assessment of Place Value Understanding twice, pretest and posttest. T-tests, analysis of variance, and repeated measures ANOVA were used on means of total scores, cell scores, and rubric scores to test the four research questions.

Findings and Conclusions: Only the mean scores of the cell of base n problems, n ? 10, showed significance differences between the two classes (p = .00). This was expected due to the research design and treatment of base numeration system instruction. All averages by total, cell, and rubric showed gains from pretest to posttest, meaning students' understanding of place value concepts improved. However, final understanding was at a less than sophisticated level. Instruction led to higher scores in the base problems, but did not improve overall place value understanding. More research is needed to examine the connection between elementary teachers' classroom instruction and the foundational concept of place value understanding.