Year five pupils’ understanding of generalised arithmetic

Abstract

This paper reports on the research on year five pupils’ understanding of generalised arithmetic, which aimed to investigate the understanding of year five pupils’ commutative property and the property of zero together with its correlation with their mathematical achievement. Data for the study were collected via paper and pencil assessment answers for two items. Findings showed moderate achievement for both of the tasks. The pupils’ explanation illustrated their poor conceptual understanding of commutative property and the property of zero. However, this understanding is not correlated with their mathematical achievement in school. It shows that an outstanding student in school did not necessarily acquire conceptual understanding of commutative principle and the property of zero.