Leveraging Number Lines and Unit Fractions to Build Student Understanding: Insights from a Mixed Methods Study
Fractions remain a challenging area of school mathematics at every stage of education, with impacts that extend far beyond the school years. For this study, researchers engaged in classroom-based design research over a 6-year period to investigate effective strategies for teaching fractions with Can...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education mathematics and technology education, 2023-06, Vol.23 (2), p.322-339 |
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| container_title | Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education |
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| creator | Bruce, Catherine D. Flynn, Tara Yearley, Shelley Hawes, Zachary |
| description | Fractions remain a challenging area of school mathematics at every stage of education, with impacts that extend far beyond the school years. For this study, researchers engaged in classroom-based design research over a 6-year period to investigate effective strategies for teaching fractions with Canadian students. Participants included 86 teachers (representing 12 collaborative research teams spread across 8 school boards) and over 2000 students from Grades 3–10. Quantitative analyses revealed significant pre-post gains in students’ fraction knowledge. Qualitative findings revealed some best practices in fractions instruction, including the importance of focusing on unit fractions and number lines to facilitate student sense-making. These findings lead to a detailed discussion of the benefits of (1) focusing on unit fractions as a central construct that allows students to meaningfully work with fractions and make connections across ideas of increasing complexity; (2) leveraging powerful representations as objects-to-think-with that combine concrete and abstract thinking about fractions; and (3) using a design research methodology in the context of collaborative work with teachers. |
| doi_str_mv | 10.1007/s42330-023-00278-x |
| format | Article |
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| ispartof | Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education, 2023-06, Vol.23 (2), p.322-339 |
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| subjects | Best practice Best Practices Collaboration Collaborative work Education Elementary School Students Engineering/Technology Education Foreign Countries Fractions Mathematics Education Mathematics Instruction Mixed methods research Number Concepts Qualitative analysis Research methodology Science Education Secondary School Students Spatial Ability Students Teachers Teaching Methods Thinking Skills |
| title | Leveraging Number Lines and Unit Fractions to Build Student Understanding: Insights from a Mixed Methods Study |
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