Skip to main content

View related sites

  • About us
  • FAQ
  • Newsletter
  • Media
  • Contact us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Cambridge Mathematics

Website navigation

  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • Mathematical Salad
  • Espresso
  • Research
  • Thought leadership
  • About us
  • FAQ
  • Newsletter
  • Media
  • Contact us
  • print

Factors, multiples and prime numbers

  • Cambridge Mathematics
  • Espresso
  • Factors, multiples and prime numbers
  • Espresso
  • 45: Teaching logical reasoning
  • 44: Development of symbol sense
  • 43: Factors, multiples and prime numbers
  • 42: Division and multiplication
  • 41: Rich data sets
  • View all Espressos

01 August 2022

An infographic showing 4 different ways of Recognising 24

What does research suggest about the teaching around factors, multiples and prime numbers?

  • Decomposing numbers to investigate their multiplicative structure can support a flexible approach to problem solving and should come before the introduction of rules or procedures
  • Activities in which students: sort objects into regular arrays of width two; explore which numbers can be split into two equal groups; and also into equal groups of two, all support conceptual understanding that even numbers are divisible by two
  • Students need to link doubling to multiplying in order to appreciate that it will always result in an even number
  • Visualising building numbers by scaling or growing, rather than by repeated addition, helps support multiplicative reasoning and generalising
  • Working with characteristics of primes can help avoid misconceptions about their size and prevalence as factors of other numbers
  • Practising seeing prime factors both individually or in combinations, can help support flexible reasoning about the divisibility of the whole number
  • Making links between different methods of finding the lowest common multiple of two numbers can support conceptual understanding; Venn diagrams are suggested as useful ways to visualise common prime factors of two numbers
View Espresso

Useful links

  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • Mathematical salad
  • Espresso
  • Research
  • Events
  • Media
  • About us
  • FAQ
  • Newsletter
  • Contact us

About Cambridge Mathematics

Cambridge Mathematics is committed to championing and securing a world class mathematics education for all students from 3 – 19 years old, applicable to both national and international contexts and based on evidence from research and practice.

  • Cambridge Mathematics

View Related Sites

  • University of Cambridge
  • Cambridge University Press
  • Faculty of Mathematics
  • Faculty of Education
  • Cambridge Assessment

© Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2022

  • Sitemap
  • Accessibility and Standards
  • Data Protection
  • Use of Cookies
  • Statement on Modern Slavery
  • Terms and Conditions
Back to top
We use cookies. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies