• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.143-168
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• 2019

Along with the significance of algebraic thinking in elementary school, it has been recently emphasized that the properties of number and operations need to be explored in a meaningful way rather than in an implicit way. Given this, the purpose of this study was to analyze how third graders could understand the properties of operations in multiplication after they were taught such properties through a reconstructed unit of multiplication. For this purpose, the students from three classes participated in this study and they completed pre-test and post-test of the properties of operations in multiplication. The results of this study showed that in the post-test most students were able to employ the associative property, commutative property, and distributive property of multiplication in (two digits) × (one digit) and were successful in applying such properties in (two digits) × (two digits). Some students also refined their explanation by generalizing computational properties. This paper closes with some implications on how to teach computational properties in elementary mathematics.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.181-203
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• 2019

Even though the properties of operations in multiplication serve a fundamental basis of conceptual understanding the multiplication with whole numbers for elementary students, there has been lack of research in this field. Given this, the purpose of this study was to analyze instructional methods related to the properties of operations in multiplication (i.e., commutative property of multiplication, associative property of multiplication, distributive property of multiplication over addition) in a series of mathematics textbooks of Korea, Japan, and the US. The overall analysis was conducted in the following two aspects: (a) when and how to deal with the properties of multiplication in three instructional context (i.e., introduction, application, generalization), and (b) what models use to represent the properties of multiplication. The results of this showed that overall similarities in introducing the properties of multiplication .in (one digit) ${\times}$ (one digit) as well as emphasizing the divers representation. However, subtle but meaningful differences were analyzed in applying and generalizing the properties of multiplication. Based on these results, this paper closes with some implications on how to teach the properties of operations in multiplication properties in elementary mathematics.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.249-267
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• 2017

The unit of multiplication in the mathematics textbook for third graders deals with two-digit number multiplied by one-digit number. Students tend to perform multiplication without necessarily understanding the principle behind the calculation. Against this background, we designed the unit in a way for students to explore the principle of multiplication with cuisenaire rods and array models. The results of this study showed that most students were able to represent the process of multiplication with both cuisenaire rods and array models and to connect such a process with multiplicative expressions. More importantly, the associative property of multiplication and the distributive property of multiplication over addition were meaningfully used in the process of writing expressions. To be sure, some students at first had difficulties in representing the process of multiplication but overcame such difficulties through the whole-class discussion. This study is expected to suggest implications for how to teach multiplication on the basis of the properties of the operation with appropriate instructional tools.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.483-497
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• 2008

This study investigated what kind of informal knowledge is emergent and what role informal knowledge play in process of solving 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication task. The data come from 4 times interviews with a 3th grade student who had not yet received regular school education regarding 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication. And the data involves the student's activity paper, the characteristics of action and the clue of thinking process. Findings from these interviews clarify the child's informal knowledge to modeling strategy, doubling strategy, distributive property, associative property. The child formed informal knowledge to justify and modify her conjecture of the algorithm.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.419-442
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• 2023

This study investigated fifth graders' understanding of variables from a generalized arithmetic and a functional perspectives of early algebra. Specifically, regarding a generalized perspective, we included the property of 1, the commutative property of addition, the associative property of multiplication, and a problem context with indeterminate quantities. Regarding the functional perspective, we covered additive, multiplicative, squaring, and linear relationships. A total of 246 students from 11 schools participated in this study. The results showed that most students could find specific values for variables and understood that equations involving variables could be rewritten using different symbols. However, they struggled to generalize problem situations involving indeterminate quantities to equations with variables. They also tended to think that variables used in representing the property of 1 and the commutative property of addition could only be natural numbers, and about 25% of the students thought that variables were fixed to a single number. Based on these findings, this paper suggests implications for elementary school students' understanding and teaching of variables.