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Travelling the road to expertise: A longitudinal study of learning
Abstract: A longitudinal study of students’ developing understanding of decimal notation has
been conducted by testing over 3000 students in Grades 4 to 10 up to 7 times. A
pencil-and-paper test based on a carefully designed set of decimal comparison items
enabled students’ responses to be classified into 11 codes and tracked over time. The
paper reports on how students’ ideas changed across the grades, which ways of
thinking were most prevalent, the most persistent and which were most likely to lead
to expertise. Interestingly the answers were different for primary and secondary
students. Estimates are also given of the proportion of students affected by particular
ways of thinking during schooling. The conclusion shows how a careful mapping can
be useful and draws out features of the learning environment that affect learning.
Stacey, K. (2005). Travelling the road to expertise: A longitudinal study of learning. In Chick, H. L. & Vincent, J. L. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, pp. 19-36). Melbourne: PME. |