Talk by Dr. Fenq-Jen Luo, Yali Yu, Ciara Burgal, and Monte Meyerink (Dept. of Education, MSU)

10/30/2019  Wilson Hall 1-144  12:00-1:00pm

Abstract:  

The presenters will discuss a study that examined 5th grade students’ ability to pose division problems in both China and the U.S. The study focused on four characteristics of the posed problems: (a) structure, (b) context, (c) steps needed to solve the problem, and (d) how students distinguish different types of division problems. Findings suggest that most division problems posed by students from both countries were partitive division, equal groups, single-step, and contextualized with food. Most students distinguished their problems with properties such as numerical size, whole or non-whole number, and remainder or no remainder. Findings also suggest that a higher percentage of Chinese students posed more contextually diverse, multi-step division problems than their U.S. counterparts.