Beyond Getting Answers: Promoting Conceptual Understanding of Multiplication

Children learn to find answers when multiplying two whole numbers (e.g., 3 × 7 = 21). To this end, they may repeatedly add one number (e.g., 7 + 7 + 7 = 21). But what meanings do they have for multiplication? The authors address this issue while sharing an innovative, playful task called Please Go and Bring for Me (PGBM). Drawing on the Concrete-Representational-Abstract approach (Witzel, 2005), the first author designed PGBM to promote children's meaning-making in multiplication and division (Tzur et al., 2013). This article is grounded in a collaboration with Year 3-5 teachers in USA public schools serving primarily underserved children of colour. The authors observed teachers implementing PGBM and experienced children's enthusiasm first-hand. The research (Tzur et al., 2018), along with teachers' reports, indicated PGBM can promote children's motivation for and success in learning multiplication. PGBM is described after depicting the intended meaning of multiplication.