Student magnitude knowledge of negative numbers

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated the relevance of magnitude estimation skills for mathematical proficiency, but little research has explored magnitude estimation with negative numbers. In two experiments the current study examined middle school students’ magnitude knowledge of negative numbers with number line tasks. In Experiment 1, both 6th (n = 132) and 7th grade students (n = 218) produced linear representations on a -10,000 to 0 scale, but the 7th grade students’ estimates were more accurate and linear. In Experiment 2, the 7th grade students also completed a -1,000 to 1,000 number line task; these results also indicated that students are linear for both negative and positive estimates. When comparing the estimates of negative and positive numbers, analyses illustrated that estimates of negative numbers are less accurate than those of positive numbers, but using a midpoint strategy improved negative estimates. These findings suggest that negative number magnitude knowledge follows a similar pattern to positive numbers, but the estimation performance of negatives lags behind that of positives.