Determining the Multiplicative Reasoning of a High School Junior and Senior

Abstract

Our study was guided by the question, how does the multiplicative reasoning of upper high school students give insight to their performance on a grade-level standards-based assessment? After giving a group of high school students a sample ACT assessment, we identified students to make comparisons between low and high scoring students on the sample assessment. Through a written assessment targeted towards assessing students’ unit coordination schemes, and through semi-structured interviews with two students, we documented a correlation between students’ level of unit coordination and their performance on the sample assessment. The evidence that students showed of limited multiplicative reasoning skills help explain some of their challenges in responding to prompts on an assessment like the ACT. This study reflects the need to give more focused attention on the multiplicative reasoning skills of secondary students and to design interventions that might develop these students’ multiplicative reasoning.