The final data collection method used was one to one interviews.

The purpose of

the interview was to investigate how far LAB was being used to answer questions

regarding to place-value of decimals and to check whether it was useful in helping

pupils to understand the place-value of decimals or not. The interview was conducted to

6 respondents from three different types of ability. The interviews involved 2 advanced

pupils (pupil A and B), 2 intermediate pupils (pupil C and D) and 2 low-achievement

pupils (pupil E and F).

Before the interviews began, each respondent was given the same test as the

post-test and they had to answer all questions in front of teacher with the help of LAB.

Then, after pupil has completed the test, teacher asked pupils a few questions. The

questions are:

1. How do you know the place-value of all underlined digit in section A?

2. How do you convert fractions to decimals in section B (i)?

3. How do you convert decimals to fractions in section B (ii)?

4. Do you feel that it is easy to round off by using LAB or common method? Why?

5. What are your feelings while using LAB?

6. Do you think that LAB has helped you to understand decimals place-value

clearly? Why?
 The criteria for analyzing the interviews were how far LAB was being used to

answer the questions in the post-test, pupils’ understanding in place-value of decimals,

and pupils interest toward LAB. In order to analyze the interviews data, I had compared

the respond of each pupil for each question as the following;

Question 1: How do you know the place-value of all underlined digit in section A?
Pupil Response
A • By looking at the decimal place.
B • By looking at the decimal place.
C • By looking at the LAB.
D • By looking at the LAB.
E • By looking at the LAB.
F • By looking at the LAB.

Based from the above table, pupil A and B gave the same answer which is by

looking at the decimal place. They did not look at the LAB while answering the

questions in section A but their explanation during the interviews showed that they have

a deeper understanding on the place-value. They knew that first decimal place represent

tenths, second decimal place represent hundredths and third decimal place represent

thousandths. Pupil C, D, E and F on the other hand use the LAB to find the place-value.

Question 2: How do you convert fractions to decimals in section B (i)?

Pupil Response
A • By looking at the denominator.

- If the denominator is 10, the decimal number has only 1

 decimal place.
B • Change the numerator to decimal according to denominator.

- If the denominator is 1000, the number of numerator will be

changed to 3 decimal places.

C • Divide the numerator by denominator.

- Moved the point backwards according to the number of zero.

D • By looking at the denominator.

- If the denominator is 100, the last place-value of the decimal

number must be hundredths.

E • Insert the pipes in LAB rod according to its place-value based from

the denominator.

29
- Example: , 9 pipes at the hundredths rod and 2 pipes at the
100

tenths rod.

- Then, read the decimal number from LAB.

F • By looking at the denominator

- If the denominator is 10, the decimal number has only 1

decimal place.

Based on second question table, pupil A, B and F looked at the denominator to

identify the number of decimal place. Pupil C used his mathematics teacher method

which is divides the numerator by the denominator and moves the decimal point

backward to convert fractions to decimals. Pupil D on the other hand, uses her

knowledge on place-value while converting and this showed that pupils have a good

understanding on decimal’s place-value. Pupil E converts fractions to decimals using the

LAB and she reads the decimal number from the LAB. Most of the pupils referred to the
denominator in order to convert fractions to decimals. Thus, I can conclude that pupils

have a good understanding on the concept of decimals number because unconsciously,

pupils have the idea on decimals as part of whole with denominator 10, 100, 1000 and so

on.

Question 3: How do you convert decimals to fractions in section B (ii)?

Pupil Response
A • By looking at the number of decimal place to determine the

denominator.

- 1 decimal place shows the denominator is 10.

B • By looking at the number of decimal place to determine the

denominator.
C • Add zero according to the number of decimal place after 1 for the

denominator.

- If 1 decimal place, add 1 zero after 1 so, the denominator is 10.

D • By looking at the place-value of the last digit.

- Example: 0.065, the place-value of the last digit (5) is

thousandths. So, the denominator of the fraction is 1000.

E • By looking at the place-value of the last digit.
F • By looking at the number of decimal place to determine the

denominator.

The table above shown that pupil A and B had given similar answer which is by

looking at the decimal place to determine the denominator of the fraction. Pupils used

reverse method from converting fractions to decimals. This had shown that pupils have a

great understanding on decimal number. Pupil C was still using his mathematics teacher

method to convert. Pupil D and E was converting decimals to fractions by looking at the
place-value of the last digit to determine the denominator while pupil F has similar

answer with pupil A and B.

Question 4: Do you feel that it is easy to round off by using LAB or common

method? Why?
Pupil Response
A • Both methods are easy.

• I can answer the questions quickly by using the common method

and by using LAB, I can check whether my answer is correct or

not.
B • Common method.

• I can get the answer quickly.

C • Common method.

• It is difficult to round off by using LAB.

D • Common method.

• I familiar with this method since standard 4.

E • Common method.

• I didn’t understand how to round off by using LAB.

F • Common method.

• It is hard to arrange the pipes linearly to round off.

The forth questions requires pupils to make a choice between the use of LAB or

common method to round off. All pupils except pupil A have chosen the common

method to round off for several reasons. The reasons are the answer can be obtained

quickly according to pupil B, the use of LAB is complicated according to pupil C, pupil

D has familiar with the common method since standard 4, pupil E did not understand
how to round off using LAB and the pipes are difficult to arrange linearly according to

pupil F. Pupil A finds that both methods are easy because the she can get the answer

quickly by using the common method and the answer can be checked whether it is

correct or not by using LAB.

Question 5: What are your feelings while using LAB?

Pupil Response
A • Happy because LAB makes learning fun.
B • Excited because it is fun to play with.
C • Happy because it is easy to use.
D • Happy because I enjoyed using LAB while learning decimals.
E • Joy because it is a fun thing to learn with.
F • Happy because it is new to me.

Based on the above table, all pupils gave a positive respond towards the use of

LAB and they claimed that this new resources make learning fun. Thus, this shown that

the use of LAB had motivated pupils to learn decimals.

Question 6: Do you think that LAB has helped you to understand decimals place-

value clearly? Why?

Pupil Response
A • Yes

• I can see clearly the value of each digit of the decimal.

B • Yes
 • It showed me how tenths, hundredths and thousandths are formed

using the pipes.

C • Yes

• The representation of each place-value was shown clearly using

different size of rods and pipes.

D • Yes

• It has provided a clear picture on how decimal numbers are

formed.
E • Yes

• It showed me clearly the place-value by the representation of pipes

and rods.
F • Yes

• It showed me clearly the place-value by the representation of pipes

and rods.

The respond of each pupil on the final question were shown clearly in the above

table. The used of LAB was a huge success because all pupils said that LAB did helped

them to understand place-value of decimals. Pupil A, B and D have a similar answer

which is LAB has shown them clearly how the decimal number are formed using the

pipes and the value of each digit in decimal number. While pupil C, E and F said that

LAB shows the place-value clearly by the representation of different sizes of pipes and

rods.

Based from the interviews, I can conclude that all pupils understand the use of

LAB and pupils were able to use the LAB to answer questions related to decimals place-

value. Although the use of LAB in rounding off is not successful, the objectives of this
study were still successfully achieved. This study was focused on pupils’ understanding

in place-value of decimals among year 5 pupils. Pupils understanding in place-value are

fundamental in order to be able to round off as it requires pupils to recognize the place-

value. Thus, it does help pupils in rounding off.

Based on pupils answer, they really showed greater understanding in decimals

place-value as they were able to relate the place-value of decimals while answering the

interviews’ questions. Each pupil was able to use LAB while answering the test even

though not all answer was related to the resources. In all, the use of LAB managed to

enhance pupils’ understanding in place-value of decimal and it also managed to motivate

pupils to learn decimals.