Concepts acquisition in addition and place value

The concept of place value and addition are presented in several of the contributions in TSG10, and the learning difficulties and possible concepts formation in learning addition are addressed. Many researches showed that children’s learning experience in addition is not as easy is we thought. Most of the time, we teach addition according to textbook material and many textbooks are algorithm-teaching based. Algorithm teaching resulted in systematic error and lack of focus on the development of place value, which hindered children to understand algorithm in multi-digits addition. Also, the representation used in carrying in addition does not relate to the concept of place value or addition. In this paper, the process of addition learning and formation of place value is analysed. Copyright © 2008 the Authors.