The study of Hong Kong 5th and 6th graders’ performance on the number sense three-tier test

Der-Ching YANG, Ka Luen CHEUNG

Research output: Contribution to conferencePapers

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to examine the Hong Kong 5th and 6th graders’ performance on the number sense three-tier test, the differences between 5th and 6th graders, and possible misconceptions. The number sense three-tier test included a content-tier which assesses content knowledge of number sense; a reason-tier, which assesses a reason selected for the first-tier response; and the confidence-tier, which assesses how confident the students are in their answers to the first two-tiers. A total of 125 fifth graders and 942 sixth graders from Hong Kong joined the test. A quantitative method was used to analyze the data and the data was collected through the on-line test. Data showed that the correct percentage (confidence index) on the first two-tiers (content-tier and reason-tier) for fifth and sixth graders are 56.6% (4.49) and 54.0% (4.27), respectively. The fifth and sixth graders all performed the best on “Being able to recognize the number size” and the worst on “Being able to judge the reasonableness of a computational result”. Results showed that part of students performed poor on number sense but with extreme high confidence indicating that they have significant misconceptions and some students may lack number sense. The finding of this study also confirmed that a number sense three-tier test can be used to mitigate the weakness of a two-tier test. Educational implications of the findings will be discussed. Copyright © 2017 The Education University of Hong Kong.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2017
EventWERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 = 世界教育研究學會會議暨香港教育研究學會國際研討會2017 - The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Duration: 30 Nov 201702 Dec 2017
https://www.eduhk.hk/wera_hkera2017/index.php

Conference

ConferenceWERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 = 世界教育研究學會會議暨香港教育研究學會國際研討會2017
Abbreviated titleWERA-HKERA 2017
Country/TerritoryHong Kong
Period30/11/1702/12/17
Internet address

Citation

Yang, D.-C., & Cheung, K. L. (2017, November). The study of Hong Kong 5th and 6th graders’ performance on the number sense three-tier test. Paper presented at the WERA Focal Meeting & HKERA International Conference 2017 (WERA-HKERA 2017): Innovation, Reform and Education Change in a Contemporary World, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

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