Place Value: Importance, Methods, and Student Assessment

This document delves into the critical role of place value in early mathematics education, emphasizing its importance for young learners. It discusses the concept of place value, the methods for assessing a student's understanding, and the significance of diagnostic interviews in identifying and addressing learning gaps. The paper also touches on the process of teaching place value to students, which helps them to develop a strong foundation in mathematics. It emphasizes the need for teachers to understand the reasoning behind students' responses to place value learning activities and how this understanding can inform effective teaching strategies. The document references specific resources that support these concepts and offer practical insights into the challenges of teaching place value and methods to overcome them.

Running Head: NUMBER PLACEMENT AND ITS IMPORTANCE 1
Number Placement and its Importance
Place value is the idea that a digits’ value (0 to 9) is dependent on its ‘place’ /
position within a number. The number 123 has ‘three places’ and in terms of ‘place’, 3 is in the
‘ones place’, 2 is in ‘tens place’, and 7 is in the ‘hundreds place’. The idea of places is a concept
young learner’s grapple with since each digit in a number set has a different value depending on its
position (place). It is very important that young learners t around year 3 fully grasp the place value
concept because it has a significant bearing on their future outcomes and performance in math
(Danielson, 2019). To accurately determine if a young learner has grasped the place value concept,
teachers need to conduct diagnostic interviews with the learner. This process entails using
diagnostic maps that describe characteristic phases in a students’ thinking development concerning
the main mathematical concepts for every set of outcomes.
The diagnostic interviews are useful in helping students understand the place value concept
better because it helps teachers understand the reason learners seem to do certain things and not
others (like place value) (Willis & Treacy, 2009). It helps the teacher realize the reason some
students are having difficulties in understanding the concept and also helps the teacher interpret
how students respond to place value learning activities. Further, diagnostic interviews and teaching
help the teacher know the needed challenges to help learners move forward their thinking,
overcome misconceptions, refine their conceptions, and help achieve the desired place value
learning outcomes. This approach also ensures the teachers are able to help students learn the
concept systematically, from the emergent, to matching and comparing phase, to the quantifying,
measuring, and relating phases (Willis & Treacy, 2009).

NUMBER PLACEMENT AND ITS IMPORTANCE 2
References
Danielson, C. (2019). The Importance of Place Value in Common Core Math - dummies. Retrieved
14 September 2019, from
https://www.dummies.com/education/common-core-standards/the- importance-of-
place-value-in-common-core-math/
Willis, S., & Treacy, K. (2009). First steps in mathematics overview (2nd ed., pp. 20-24). Ascot,
W.A.: STEPS Professional Development.