The Development of an Assessment Tool: Student Knowledge of the Concept of Place Value.

The importance of student understanding of the concept of place value cannot be underestimated. Place value is a ‘gate keeper’ in developing mathematical understanding. The purpose of this study was to examine and develop a teacher-made test of place value knowledge. The questions were developed using the progressions from the Number Framework (Bobis, Clarke, Clarke, Thomas, Wright et al., 2005). An exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the assessment tool. The analysis of student responses to the test questions revealed a three-factor structure that supported the existing literature on the progression in learning of place value ideas, by identifying the critical key ideas that underlie the concept of place value. The results validated the tool as a test of place value knowledge that could be used to assess the performance of Yrs. 3-9 students.

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