possible difficulties for children identified by PTs. Four common misconceptions were
identified by PTs: “length, comparison with zero, presence of a zero digit, and similarity”
(p. 217). PTs were aware that children might think that longer decimals have a larger value
than shorter ones. In addition, they seemed to know that comparing a decimal to zero or to
a decimal containing a zero between non-zero digits can be challenging. PTs further were
aware that decimals that had a collection of digits in common were harder to compare (e.g.,
8.245 and 8.24563 [p. 216]). PTs showed very little awareness of the shorter is larger
misconception.