The development of unitizing: Its role in children's partitioning strategies

Abstract

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.