pra
at
ac
c iie
ct ce
into
Chapter 1
The Meaning of Multiplication
Essential Understanding 1a
In the multiplicative expression A × B, A can be defined as a scaling factor.
Essential Understanding 1c
A situation that can be represented by multiplication has an element that represents the
scalar and an element that represents the quantity to which the scalar applies.
Essential Understanding 1d
A scalar definition of multiplication is useful in representing and solving problems beyond
whole number multiplication and division.
Multiplication is a scalar process involving two quantities, with one quantity—the
multiplier—serving as a scaling factor and specifying how the operation resizes,
or rescales, the other quantity—the multiplicative unit. The rescaled result is the
product of the multiplication. Understanding multiplication as a scalar operation on
whole numbers as well as other numbers is the foundation of multiplicative think-
ing and underlies Essential Understandings 1a, 1c, and 1d, presented in Developing
Essential Understanding of Multiplication and Division for Teaching Mathematics in
Grades 3–5 (Otto et al. 2011). This chapter focuses on helping students recognize
situations that call for multiplicative thinking and assessing their understanding of
the elements that make these situations multiplicative.
Working toward Essential Understandings 1a, 1c, and 1d
As Otto and colleagues (2011) discuss, “Multiplication is a fundamental operation
that is used to solve everyday problems” (p. 10). Yet, many students struggle to de-
velop a deep understanding of multiplication and the underlying ideas related to it.
To help students develop such understanding, teachers need to design, adapt, or se-
lect worthwhile mathematical tasks for them to work with, interpret the responses
that they give, and make instructional decisions on the basis of the thinking that
11
Putting Essential Understanding of Multiplication and Division into Practice in Grades 3–5
they reveal. These critical practices require specialized knowledge. To begin explor-
ing students’ development of this understanding, analyze the problems in figure
1.1. As you consider these problems, think about the questions posed in Reflect 1.1.
Reflect 1.1
Which of the problems shown in figure 1.1 call for multiplicative reasoning?
Which call for additive reasoning?
How do these problems compare with the problems that you use to help your
students develop additive and multiplicative reasoning?
What are the benefits of using tasks that require students to compare and
contrast situations involving multiplicative and additive reasoning?
1. Phil ran 2 miles. Sally ran 3 times the distance that Phil ran. How many miles did
Sally run?
2. Phil ran 2 miles. Sally ran 3 more miles than Phil. How many miles did
Sally run?
3. Phil ran 3⁄4 of a mile. Sally ran 2⁄3 of the distance that Phil ran. How many miles did
Sally run?
4. P hil ran 3⁄4 of a mile. Sally ran 2⁄3 of a mile more than Phil ran. How many miles did
Sally run?
Fig. 1.1. Contextual problems about the number of miles that Sally ran:
additive or multiplicative situations?
The four situations in figure 1.1 have some similarities. For example, they all pose
the same question: “How many miles did Sally run?” Yet, students’ responses to
subtle differences in the situations provide opportunities to assess their multi-
plicative reasoning. Problems 2 and 4 require students to add the two values to
determine the total number of miles that Sally ran. By contrast, problems 1 and 3
require students to think multiplicatively. Draw diagrams to represent problems 1
and 3, and then respond to the questions in Reflect 1.2.
12
The Meaning of Multiplication
Reflect 1.2
What does reasoning multiplicatively mean?
What does reasoning additively mean?
Clearly, you want your students to do more than just provide answers to multiplica-
tion facts—telling you only, for example, that 3 3 5 is 15. Students need to build an
understanding of the meaning of multiplicative situations and learn to reason mul-
tiplicatively. These essential understandings and competencies will support their
future learning when they encounter topics such as prime and composite numbers,
factorization and prime factorization, factor and greatest common factor, multiple,
area and volume, proportional reasoning, mean, algebraic expressions, linear func-
tions, and place value (Otto et al. 2011).
One key aspect of your students’ understanding that you, as their teacher, need to
encourage is the development of multiplicative reasoning that extends beyond a
view of multiplication as repeated addition (Jacob and Willis 2001). Students should
relate multiplicative reasoning to iterating—that is, to making multiple copies—and
partitioning sets of objects as well as to the length, area, and volume of physical
quantities. When students see the mathematical expression 3 3 5, for example,
they should be able to view 5 as the multiplicative unit (also called the multipli-
cand) and 3 as the scaling factor (also called the multiplier) for that multiplicative
unit. Such a perspective not only involves recognizing the multiplicative unit, but
also being able to iterate it—make multiple copies of it. The expression 3 3 5, for
example, means 3 copies of 5 or 3 groups of 5. This interpretation of 3 3 5 reflects
a critical meaning of multiplication that students must establish.
Students who reason multiplicatively can “see” a multiplicative unit and create
multiple copies of it. An initial view of multiplication should involve understand-
ing what it means to create 1, 2, 3, 5, or more copies of a given unit. Note that some
researchers refer to the multiplicative unit as the composite unit (e.g., Steffe 1992;
Lamon 1994; Tzur et al. 2013).
Eventually, we want students to recognize what it means to create 1⁄2 of the mul-
tiplicative unit 21⁄2, obtaining the product 5⁄4. Students who have a deeper under-
standing of multiplicative reasoning will begin to make multiplicative comparisons
and express them in statements such as, “This is half as much as I had before.”
Jacob and Willis (2001, p. 307) emphasized the importance of three aspects of mul-
tiplicative situations:
13
Putting Essential Understanding of Multiplication and Division into Practice in Grades 3–5
It was the work of Kouba (1989), Steffe (1992), Mulligan and Mitchelmore
(1997) and Mulligan and Watson (1998) that led to the conclusion that
children must first come to recognise multiplicative situations as involving
three aspects: groups of equal size (a multiplicand), numbers of groups (the
multiplier), and a total amount (the product). When they can construct and
coordinate these factors in both multiplication and division problems prior
to carrying out the count, they are thinking multiplicatively.
Let’s consider these three critical aspects—the multiplicand (or multiplicative unit);
the multiplier; and the product—in the case of two problem situations:
1. Elizabeth has 3 bags with 5 apples in each bag. How many apples does
Elizabeth have?
2. Elizabeth has 3 pieces of ribbon. Each ribbon is 5 inches long. What is the
total length of the ribbon that Elizabeth has?
Both of these situations can be expressed as 3 3 5 = 15. Depending on the context,
students approaching these problems work with objects or units of measure—apples
in problem 1, inches in problem 2. They must conceptualize some number of objects
or units of measure as the multiplicative unit—5 apples in problem 1, 5 inches of
ribbon in problem 2. This number (or quantity) of objects or units of measure is the
multiplicand—in both of these cases, 5. Figure 1.2 illustrates these multiplicative
units of 5 apples and 5 inches of ribbon, configured in problem 2 as a 5-inch seg-
ment of ribbon.
Fig. 1.2. The multiplicative units for the apple and ribbon situations in problems 1 and 2
Students then must iterate the multiplicative unit a number of times. The multiplier,
or scalar factor, represents the number of iterations. In problems 1 and 2, both of
14
The Meaning of Multiplication
which present situations that can be expressed as 3 3 5, the multiplier, or scalar fac-
tor, is 3, as figure 1.3 illustrates. The total number of objects or units of measure after
the operation of the scalar factor is the product, or 15, as illustrated in figure 1.4.
Fig. 1.3. The multiplier, 3, for the apple and ribbon situations in problems 1 and 2
Fig. 1.4. The product
Consider another case, 2⁄3 3 3⁄4, which extends the process of multiplication
beyond whole numbers. Figure 1.5 presents a number line representation of
2⁄ 3 3⁄ —a symbolic expression that could represent problem 3 in figure 1.1:
3 4
Phil ran 3⁄4 of a mile. Sally ran 2⁄3 of the distance that Phil ran. How
many miles did Sally run?
The multiplicand, or multiplicative unit, is 3⁄4. Therefore, students using a number
line representation need to understand that 3⁄4 of a unit on the number line rep-
resents this multiplicative unit. The multiplier (scalar factor) is 2⁄3, which means
15
Putting Essential Understanding of Multiplication and Division into Practice in Grades 3–5
that students need to partition the multiplicative unit into 3 equal parts and iter-
ate that part twice. The product is 2 copies of 1⁄3 of a length of 3⁄4, or 2⁄3 of 3⁄4,
which is 2⁄4 of a unit on the number line.
The multiplicative unit is 3/4
1/3 ofa
multiplicative
unit of 3/4
0 1/4 2/4 3/4 1
2/3 of a multiplicative unit of 3/4
Fig 1.5. Illustrating 2 ⁄3 3 3 ⁄4 on a number line
Initially, students may have little sense of what a multiplicative unit is or that
they can quantify a given situation in at least two different ways—one, by count-
ing the number of objects within a multiplicative unit and the number of copies of
the multiplicative unit, and the other, by counting the total number of objects in
all the copies. For example, students should recognize that a diagram showing 7
circles with 3 smaller circles in each one could be viewed as 7 groups of 3 objects
or, at the same time, as 21 objects. They should be able to identify the groups and
the objects. However, such a dual view of the number of objects and the number of
groups can be difficult for some children to coordinate.
To gain further insight into the different ways that students may view the multiplica-
tive unit and the meaning of multiplication, consider the understanding and misun-
derstanding that third and fourth graders demonstrated in the work shown in figures
1.6–1.11. The third graders made representations of 7 groups of 3 and 7 3 3 and gave
the product of 7 3 3, and the fourth graders created representations of 7 3 3. As you
review the samples of student work, consider the questions in Reflect 1.3.
16
