For students to develop adequate conceptual understanding about fractions, they require experiences that afford them opportunities to think flexibly about multiple interpretations of fractions. This article presents a sequence of lessons designed to offer such experiences for students in Years 3 and Year 4. The lessons adopt a challenging tasks…

Without a doubt, fractions prove to be a stumbling block for many children. Researchers have suggested a variety of explanations for why this is the case. The introduction of symbolization and operations before the development of conceptual understanding of fractions, a lack of understanding of the role of the numerator and denominator, and an…

More work with fractions needs to be done in the elementary school, with emphasis on concepts rather than computational algorithms. (MP)

Activities are given to assist students in seeing a rationale for the difficult algorithms we teach for fractions. Both interpretations of fractions and operations with fractions are discussed. (MNS)

This preapprenticeship preparation curriculum consists of 13 learning modules. Covered in the modules are the following: the nature and scope of apprenticeships, a pretest to assess students' mathematical skills, the General Aptitude Test Battery, interviews for an apprenticeship program, whole numbers, common fractions, decimal fractions,…

Presents an investigation using data collected by students to explore timelines and pie charts. The activity begins with having students keep a chronological record of their activities for one 24-hour period to create and analyze pie charts that show how they have spent their time. Activity sheet also included. (ASK)

Ben, a good mathematics student, participated in a seven-week study. Describes three tasks that reflect impact of textbooks, real-life connections, and mathematical symbols. Shows that Ben's notion of one-half was task-dependent, concrete, and based on physical actions. (NI)

The idea that studying part-whole number relationships can foster a better understanding of number concepts, addition, subtraction, fractions, decimals, ratios, and percentages depending on the age of the student is discussed. Activities that incorporate number relationships and representations are presented. (KR)

Discusses the two overgeneralizations "multiplications makes bigger" and "division makes smaller" in the context of solving word problems involving rational numbers less than one. Presents activities to help students make sense of multiplication and division in these situations. (MDH)

This collection of booklets deals with minumum standards in mathematics for beginning eleventh grade students. There is a statement of the standards with related skills, a test to assess competency with accompanying answer sheet and answer key, and eight booklets presenting problems covered by six of the standards. The booklets cover: percentages;…

Discusses the language used in mathematics classrooms and states that appropriate language is based not only on the words we say but also on how those words are being perceived. Indicates that teachers should give students time to develop the meaning of numbers, operations, or problems. (ASK)

Provides measurement, estimation, and data analysis activities for grades three to four and five to six using boxes of cereal and containers of frozen yogurt. (MKR)

Suggests several hands-on materials for teaching primary students more concretely the concept of fractions. (HTH)

Describes common misconceptions with decimals and suggests activities that can strengthen connections between decimal concepts and fractions, place value, and physical models, such as the number line. Encourages reasoning, communicating, and problem solving. (TO)

Presents activities that can be helpful in establishing a conceptual basis for dividing rational numbers. Some activities involve metric units while others are appropriate for small-group work with calculators. (AIM)