This paper investigates the interplay of words and expressions with students' efforts to indicate times on a clock. We consider how elementary students interpret precise times (e.g., 2:30, 4:30) as compared to relative times (e.g., half past 11) as they describe this intangible quantity using a clock. Interviews with students in grades 2 and 4 (n…

This article reports on elementary students' understanding of time in the context of common classroom manipulatives and notational systems. Students in Grades 2 (n = 72) and 4 (n = 72) participated in problem-solving interviews involving different clocks. Quantitative results revealed that students' performances were significantly different as a…