Difficulties with rational numbers have been explained by a natural number bias, where concepts of natural numbers are inappropriately applied to rational numbers. Overcoming this difficulty may require a radical restructuring of previous knowledge. In order to capture this development, we examined third- to fifth-grade students' understanding of…

This study explored first graders' fraction learning when the teacher elicited and built on children's informal knowledge of fractions during discussions of equal-sharing tasks; the study focused on key classroom interactions resulting in cognitive change. Findings suggest that thinking about fractions is influenced by the structure of the child's…