A longitudinal study of students' understanding of decimal notation: An overview and refined results

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the major results of a large-scale longitudinal study of students' misconceptions of decimal notation, drawing them together and presenting refined results. Best estimates of the prevalence of various misconceptions about decimal numbers from both cross-sectional and longitudinal perspectives are provided, as well as some estimates of persistence. Strengths, limitations and suggestions for improvements to the Decimal Comparison Test as well as major implications for teaching are discussed.

Steinle, V., & Stacey, K. (2004a). A longitudinal study of students' understanding of decimal notation: An overview and refined results. In I. Putt, R. Faragher & M. McLean (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (Vol. 2, pp. 541-48). Townsville: MERGA.