Distinguishing adaptive from routine expertise with rational number arithmetic

Adaptive expertise is a valued, but under-examined, feature of students' mathematical development (e.g. Hatano & Oura, 2012). The present study investigates the nature of adaptive expertise with rational number arithmetic. We therefore examined 394 7th and 8th graders' rational number knowledge using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches. Performance on a measure of adaptive expertise with rational number arithmetic, the...