Intuitive Development of the Concept of Integers among Primary School Students

Abstract

This paper investigated the intuitive development of the concept of integers among primary school students. In order to reveal if primary school students had an intuitive sense of integers, an assessment consisting of five questions was prepared and applied to a total 100 4th grade students. A variety of integer concepts were utilized in the assessment including; integer ordering, less-than greater-than relations, as well as, integer addition and subtraction. In order to analyse the assessment data a coding system was utilized. Two researchers separately coded the students’ answer responses, and later met with a third researcher to resolve any differences of rater reliability. According to the findings from this research, the 4th grade students investigated did exhibit an intuitive understanding of integers. In order to build upon students understand-ing of integers, examples from daily life as well as cardinal and ordinal meanings of numbers should be utilized in future instruction.

Keywords

• Integers
• Intuitive Understanding
• Cardinal Understanding
• Ordinal Understanding
• Children’s Thinking