EDP243 – Diagnostic assessment

Background information
This study is based upon an eight year old male named ‘Boris’. Boris is in grade three and
has articulated that he currently lacks confidence with his mathematical skills, however is
egger to improve as he understands the importance of which mathematical concepts has
within everyday life. Firstly, a Mathematics Assessment Interview (MAI) (Australian Catholic
University, 2011) was conducted to ascertain Boris’ understanding of place value concepts.
After analysing the outcomes from this assessment, six tutoring sessions were developed
with the attempt to resolve misconceptions and to consolidate mathematical understandings.

Diagnostic interview
Boris engaged with the MAI extremely well, although not all questions were answered
successfully, the results depicted the child’s strengths and weaknesses of which the tutor
was able to base each tutoring session around this knowledge. The MAI results revealed
that one of Boris’s weaknesses lied in reading aloud the numbers containing four or more
digits. For example, Boris could fluently read question 7, ‘read these numbers: 117, 407,
690’. However, during question 14, ‘read these numbers: 1847, 2075, 7203’ Boris
confidently answered, ‘eighteen hundred and forty-seven’, immediately pausing after
realising this was the incorrect answer. This example highlights a gap in Boris’s place value
understandings, particularly the positional property of numbers as Boris confusion arises
when determining the value of digits in the hundreds and thousands column (Ross, 2002). In
early number development, it is imperative that children develop a deep understanding for
the Hindu-Arabic numeration system, in particular the principles of place value and the base
ten structure. However, research shows that language has a strong influence on a child’s
number sense development, especially when learning multi-digit numbers as it can be seen
that numerical development is moderated by language through the relationship between the
actual number, the symbol used to represent it and value of the number and (Klein et al.,
2013). The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) indicates
that grade three students should ‘order numbers to at least 10 000’. (ACMNA052, ACARA,
2014). The MAI reveled Boris’ misconceptions regarding ordering numbers included four or
more digits. When asked question 16, ‘order these numbers from smallest to largest…
[3569, 3659, 3656]’ Boris lacked confidence, however, was able to provide the correct
answer with his reasoning being ‘I know that 35 is smaller than 36 then I looked at the next
number and know that 59 is bigger than 56’. When a mixed set of large numbers was posed
(question 22) Boris was unable to order these numbers which again confirms a gap in place
value concept understandings.

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