• The Mathematical Education
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.21-45
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• 2012

The purpose of the study was to investigate how students understand each operations with whole numbers and fractions, and the relationship between their knowledge of operations with whole numbers and conceptual understanding of operations on fractions. Researchers categorized students' understanding of operations with whole numbers and fractions based on their semantic structure of these operations, and analyzed the relationship between students' understanding of operations with whole numbers and fractions. As the results, some students who understood multiplications with whole numbers as only situations of "equal groups" did not properly conceptualize multiplications of fractions as they interpreted wrongly multiplying two fractions as adding two fractions. On the other hand, some students who understood multiplications with whole numbers as situations of "multiplicative comparison" appropriately conceptualize multiplications of fractions. They naturally constructed knowledge of fractions as they build on their prior knowledge of whole numbers compared to other students. In the case of division, we found that some students who understood divisions with whole numbers as only situations of "sharing" had difficulty in constructing division knowledge of fractions from previous division knowledge of whole numbers.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.235-263
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of children's understanding of fractions in mathematics problem solving. Kieren has claimed that the concept of fractions is not a single construct, but consists of several interrelated subconstructs(i.e., part-whole, ratio, operator, quotient and measure). Later on, in the early 1980s, Behr et al. built on Kieren's conceptualization and suggested a theoretical model linking the five subconstructs of fractions to the operations of fractions, fraction equivalence and problem solving. In the present study we utilized this theoretical model as a reference to investigate children's understanding of fractions. The case study has been conducted with 6 children consisted of 4th to 5th graders to detect how they understand factions, and how their understanding influence problem solving of subconstructs, operations of fractions and equivalence. Children's understanding of fractions was categorized into "part-whole", "ratio", "operator", "quotient", "measure" and "result of operations". Most children solved the problems based on their conceptual structure of fractions. However, we could not find the particular relationships between children's understanding of fractions and fraction operations or fraction equivalence, while children's understanding of fractions significantly influences their solutions to the problems of five subconstructs of fractions. We suggested that the focus of teaching should be on the concept of fractions and the meaning of each operations of fractions rather than computational algorithm of fractions.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.337-354
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• 2011

The purpose of the study was to investigate how students understand multiplication and division of fractions and how their understanding influences the solutions of fractional word problems. Thirteen students from 5th to 6th grades were involved in the study. Students' understanding of operations with fractions was categorized into "a part of the parts", "multiplicative comparison", "equal groups", "area of a rectangular", and "computational procedures of fractional multiplication (e.g., multiply the numerators and denominators separately)" for multiplications, and "sharing", "measuring", "multiplicative inverse", and "computational procedures of fractional division (e.g., multiply by the reciprocal)" for divisions. Most students understood multiplications as a situation of multiplicative comparison, and divisions as a situation of measuring. In addition, some students understood operations of fractions as computational procedures without associating these operations with the particular situations (e.g., equal groups, sharing). Most students tended to solve the word problems based on their semantic structure of these operations. Students with the same understanding of multiplication and division of fractions showed some commonalities during solving word problems. Particularly, some students who understood operations on fractions as computational procedures without assigning meanings could not solve word problems with fractions successfully compared to other students.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.453-475
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• 2018

This study examines how elementary students understand fractions with operations conceptually and how they perform procedures in the division of fractions. We attempted to look into students' understanding about fractions with divisions in regard to mathematical proficiency suggested by National Research Council (2001). Mathematical proficiency is identified as an intertwined and interconnected composition of 5 strands- conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition. We developed an instrument to identify students' understanding of fractions with multiplication and division and conducted the survey in which 149 6th-graders participated. The findings from the data analysis suggested that overall, the 6th-graders seemed not to understand fractions conceptually; in particular, their understanding is limited to a particular model of part-whole fraction. The students showed a tendency to use memorized procedure-invert and multiply in a given problem without connecting the procedure to the concept of the division of fractions. The findings also proposed that on a given problem-solving task that suggested a pathway in order for the students to apply or follow the procedures in a new situation, they performed the computation very fluently when dividing two fractions by multiplying by a reciprocal. In doing so, however, they appeared to unable to connect the procedures with the concepts of fractions with division.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.563-588
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• 2015

In elementary school, didactical transposition is inevitable due to several reasons. In mathematics, addition and multiplication are taught as binary operations, subtraction and division are taught as unary operations. But in elementary school, we try to teach all the four operations as binary operations by didactical transposition. In 'Mastering' the concepts of the four operations, the way of concept introduction is dealt importantantly. So it is different from understanding the four operations. In this study, we analyzed the four operations of natural numbers and fractions from two perspectives: concept understanding (how to introduce concepts and how to choose an operation) and connection between the operations. As a result, following implications were obtained. In division of fractions, students attempted a connection with multiplication of fractions right away without choosing an operation, based on the situation. Also, to understand division of fractions itself, integrate division of fractions presented from the second semester of the fifth grade to the first semester of the sixth grade are needed. In addition, this result can be useful in the future textbook development.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.195-215
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• 2001

The purpose of this paper is to present a specific set of home teaching methods in hopes to prevent slow learner of the elementary mathematics. This paper deals with the number and operations, one of five topics in the elementary mathematics A survey of two hundred elementary school teachers was made to see the teacher's opinions of the role of home studying and to concretize the contents of the research topics. There were asked which is the most essential contents for the concrete loaming and which is the most difficult monad that might cause slow leaner. And those were found to be; counting, and arithmetic operations(addition and subtraction) of one or two-digit numbers and multiplication and their concepts representations and operations(addition and subtraction) of fractions. The home teaching methods are based on the situated learning about problem solving in real life situations and on the active teaming which induces children's participation in the process of teaching and learning. Those activities in teaching each contents are designed to deal with real objects and situations. Most teaching methods are presented in the order of school curriculum. To teach the concepts of numbers and the place value, useful activities using manipulative materials (Base ten blocks, Unifix, etc.) or real objects are also proposed. Natural number's operations such as addition, subtraction and multiplication are subdivided into small steps depending upon current curriculum, then for understanding of operational meaning and generalization, games and activities related to the calculation of changes are suggested. For fractions, this paper suggest 10 learning steps, say equivalent partition, fractional pattern, fractional size, relationship between the mixed fractions and the improper fraction, identifying fractions on the number line, 1 as a unit, discrete view point of fractions, comparison of fractional sizes, addition and subtraction, quantitative concepts. This research basically centers on the informal activities of kids under the real-life situation because such experiences are believed to be useful to prevent slow learner. All activities and learnings in this paper assume children's active participation and we believe that such active and informal learning would be more effective for learning transfer and generalization.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.707-734
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate how children understand addition and subtraction of fractions and how their understanding influences the solutions of fractional word problems. Twenty students from 4th to 6th grades were involved in the study. Children's understanding of operations with fractions was categorized into "joining", "combine" and "computational procedures (of fraction addition)" for additions, "taking away", "comparison" and "computational procedures (of fraction subtraction)" for subtractions. Most children understood additions as combining two distinct sets and subtractions as removing a subset from a given set. In addition, whether fractions had common denominators or not did not affect how they interpret operations with fractions. Some children understood the meanings for addition and subtraction of fractions as computational procedures of each operation without associating these operations with the particular situations (e.g. joining, taking away). More children understood addition and subtraction of fractions as a computational procedure when two fractions had different denominators. In case of addition, children's semantic structure of fractional addition did not influence how they solve the word problems. Furthermore, we could not find any common features among children with the same understanding of fractional addition while solving the fractional word problems. In case of subtraction, on the other hand, most children revealed a tendency to solve the word problems based on their semantic structure of the fractional subtraction. Children with the same understanding of fractional subtraction showed some commonalities while solving word problems in comparison to solving word problems involving addition of fractions. Particularly, some children who understood the meaning for addition and subtraction of fractions as computational procedures of each operation could not successfully solve the word problems with fractions compared to other children.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.285-304
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• 2009

The operations of fractions are the main contents of number and operations in the elementary mathematics curriculum. They are also difficult for students to understand conceptually. Nevertheless, there has been little study on the addition and subtraction of fractions. Given this, this paper explored the connection between the national mathematics curriculum and its concomitant textbooks, the adequacy of when to teach, and the method of constructing each unit to teach addition and subtraction of fractions. This paper then analyzed elementary mathematics textbooks and workbooks by three parts aligned with the general instructional flow: 'introduction', 'activity', and, 'exercise'. First, it was analyzed with regard to the introduction part whether the word problems of textbooks might reflect on students' daily lives as intended, how different meanings of operations would be expected to be taught, and how the subsequent activities were connected with the original word problems. Second, the main analysis of activity part of the textbooks dealt with how to use concrete or iconic models to promote students' conceptual understanding of operations and how to formalize the calculation methods and principles with regard to addition and subtraction of fractions. Third, the analysis of the part of exercise in the textbooks and workbooks was conducted with regard to problem types and meanings of operations. It is expected that the issues and suggestions stemming from this analysis of current textbooks and workbooks are informative in developing new instructional materials aligned to the recently revised mathematics curriculum.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.129-147
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• 2019

Because of the various concepts and meanings of fractions and the difficulty of learning, studies to improve the teaching methods of fraction have been carried out. Particularly, because there are various methods of teaching depending on the type of fractions or the models or methods used for problem solving in fraction operations, many researches have been implemented. In this study, I analyzed the fractional operations of CCSSM-CA and its U.S. textbooks. It was CCSSM-CA revised and presented in California and the textbooks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., which reflect the content and direction of CCSSM-CA. As a result of the analysis, although the grades presented in CCSSM-CA and Korean textbooks were consistent in the addition and subtraction of fractions, there are the features of expressing fractions by the sum of fractions with the same denominator or unit fraction and the evaluation of the appropriateness of the answer. In the multiplication and division of fractions, there is a difference in the presentation according to the grades. There are the features of the comparison the results of products based on the number of factor, presenting the division including the unit fractions at first, and suggesting the solving of division problems using various ways.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.203-217
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• 2018

This study examined preservice elementary teachers' patterns and tendencies in thinking of drawn models of multiplication with fractions. In particular, it investigated preservice elementary teachers' work in a context where they were asked to select among drawn models for symbolic expressions illustrating multiplication with non-whole number fractions including a mixed number. Preservice teachers' interpretations of fraction multiplication used in interpreting different types of drawn models were analysed-both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings and implications are discussed and further research is suggested.