• DOI:10.2307/749599
• Corpus ID: 45967653

The Development of Unitizing: Its Role in Children's Partitioning Strategies.

@article{Lamon1996TheDO,
  title={The Development of Unitizing: Its Role in Children's Partitioning Strategies.},
  author={Susan J. Lamon},
  journal={Journal for Research in Mathematics Education},
  year={1996},
  volume={27},
  pages={170-193}
}

• S. Lamon
• Published 1 March 1996
• Education
• Journal for Research in Mathematics Education

The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the intuitive activity that precedes the construction of quantity, in particular, to make inferences concerning developmental trends and needs in children's unitizing processes. Using a cross-sectional design, the study analyzed the partitioning strategies of 346 children from grades four through eight in terms of a framework that translated economy in the number or size of pieces and the use of perceptual cues into sophistication in unitizing. At each grade level, a greater percentage of students used economical partitioning strategies than used less economical cut-and-distribute strategies. As grade level increased, the percentage of students using economical strategies increased, indicating a shift away from the distribution of singleton units toward the use of more composite units. Strategies were heavily influenced by social practice related to the commodity being shared and, to a lesser degree, by the numerical portion of the given extensive quantities.