Make Math Moments Academy › Forums › Mini-Course Reflections › The Concept Holding Your Students Back › Lesson 5-3: Notice & Name – Absolute vs. Relative Thinking – Discussion › Reply To: Lesson 5-3: Notice & Name – Absolute vs. Relative Thinking – Discussion
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Absolute thinking uses terminology of “more than/less than.” It’s additive thinking where we are looking for differences of a single unit.
With relative thinking we are evaluating one object in terms of another. I will hear students talking about about “groups of” or “times.” It’s multiplicative thinking. They might still be counting on their fingers, but each finger would represent a multiple rather than an individual number.