ABSTRACT
In the Spring 1997, a group of a dozen first and primary school teachers and I sat down and brainstormed all the reasons we found place value challenging to teach. Frequently we concluded that one of the roots of the problem was language but, thinking that was rather vague, we committed ourselves to being as specific as we could possibly be. The efforts of our labours are shown in Figure 3.1 BUT, before you look, I suggest you jot down why you think place value is so challenging to teach. (It may be, of course, that you do not, in which case please can you let us in on the secret!)
I asked you to write down your thoughts for two reasons. The first is that you may come up with many more ideas than we did. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this book is about encouraging people to unravel the complexities of a topic for themselves. I could have written a book which analysed all the mathematical topics commonly taught in primary schools in the same way. This would have produced a good fat book and by the end of it you might have had a little more knowledge but, I would argue, you would not be so well equipped as you are likely to be should you make it to the end of this one.
