The importance of multiplicative thinking in supporting students' learning of key topics and success in further mathematics is widely and clearly stated in mathematics education literature. However, multiplicative thinking is not clearly stated in curriculum documents of many countries including Australia. In the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, it is implied throughout as multiplication and division with emphasis on recall of multiplication facts, factors, and multiples of a number, grouping into equal sets, and the use of mental solution strategies. In this theoretical paper, we discuss how this lack of an explicit framework for students' development of multiplicative thinking might be remedied by: (i) making curriculum and teaching to be explicit about multiplicative thinking from early primary school (F--3), and (ii) implementing three key teaching stages for developing multiplicative thinking in students throughout the middle primary (4--6) and junior secondary years (7--8). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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