Number sense, place value and "odometer" principle in decimal numeration: Adding 1 tenth and 1 hundredth

Abstract

Having a facility with numbers (whole numbers and decimals) is essential for life skills. It requires an understanding and coordination of several powerful mathematical concepts (e.g., place value, additive and multiplicative fields, the role of zero, seriation) and principles (e.g., "odometer", associative, commutative distribute) (Baturo, 2000). This paper reports on 329 Year 6 students’ proficiency with seriation of tenths and hundredths when instruction in these two places was complete. They were asked to add 1 tenth and 1 hundredth to a variety of given numbers with the overall results of 53.6% and 54.6% respectively. These results were evaluated in terms of the students’ responses to basic place value tasks. This paper analyses the mathematical structure of the tasks, discusses some common error patterns discerned, and draws inferences for teaching.