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http://dx.doi.org/10.7468/jksmed.2022.25.3.175

A First Grade Teacher's Challenge in Promoting Students' Understanding of Unit Iteration  

Pak, Byungeun (Department of Education, Utah Tech University)
Publication Information
Research in Mathematical Education / v.25, no.3, 2022 , pp. 175-188 More about this Journal
Abstract
Measurement has been an important part of mathematics content students must learn through their schooling. Many studies suggest students' weak measurement learning, particularly related to length measurement, on the part of lower grade students. This difficulty has been attributed to mathematics curriculum as well as instruction. Building on a view of teaching as an interactive activity, this paper explores how a first grade teacher interacted with her students in small groups in a length measurement lesson to promote conceptual understanding as well as procedural fluency. I found that even though the teacher supported students to explain and justify what they understood, the ways the teacher interacted with students were not effective to promote students' understanding. Even though this finding is based on an analysis of a single mathematics lesson, it provides an example of challenges in promoting students' understanding through interaction with students in the context of teaching length measurement.
Keywords
length measurement; lower grade teachers; mathematics instruction;
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