• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.217-232
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• 2012

While many studies on early algebra have been conducted, there have been only a few studies on the operation sense as the fundamental element of algebraic thinking, especially the fraction operation sense. This study explored the dimensions of fraction operation sense and then investigated students' fraction operation sense. A total of 183 of sixth graders were surveyed and 5 students who showed high operation sense were clinically interviewed in order to analyze their algebraic thinking in detail. The results showed that students had a tendency to use direct calculation or employ inappropriate operation sense rather than to use the structure of operation or the relation between operations on the basis of algebraic thinking. This study implies that explicit instruction on early algebra is necessary from the elementary school years.

• School Mathematics
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.71-91
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze operation sense in detail with regard to division of fraction. For this purpose, two sixth grade students who were good at calculation were clinically interviewed three times. The analysis was focused on (a) how the students would understand the multiple meanings and models of division of fraction, (b) how they would recognize the meaning of algorithm related to division of fraction, and (c) how they would employ the meanings and properties of operation in order to translate them into different modes of representation as well as to develop their own strategies. This paper includes several episodes which reveal students' qualitative difference in terms of various dimensions of operation sense. The need to develop operation sense is suggested specifically for upper grades of elementary school.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.183-207
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• 2024

This study is a case study that considered fractional senses and fraction operation abilities for 107 gifted students in elementary school classes. In order to find out the fractional sense, in the first question comparing the sizes of fractions 2/3 and 4/5, the students showed a variety of strategies, but the utilization rate of strategies excluding reduction to a common denominator did not exceed 50%. The second question can be solved by using the first question. It is a problem of finding two fractions by selecting four from six numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 to create two fractions of which sum does not exceed 1. The percentage of correct answers to this question was about 27% (29 out of 107). Only 5 out of 29 students found answers using the first question, and the rest of the students sought answers through trial and error in various calculations. It shows that the item arrangement method from a deductive perspective has no significant effect on elementary school students. The percentage of correct answers was about 27% in the questions to find out the fraction operation ability-the question of drawing a 4/3 bar using a given 3/8-sized bar and 30.7% (23 out of 75) of the students who had wrong answers showed insufficient splitting operation. In addition, it has been shown that the operation of partitioning and iterating to form numerical senses and fractional concepts related to the fractions of the students has no significant impact.