Understanding the relationship between fractions and decimals is an important step in developing an overall understanding of rational numbers. Research has demonstrated the feasibility of technology in the form of virtual manipulatives for facilitating students' meaningful understanding of rational number concepts. This exploratory dissertation…

This research aims to analyze ways of understanding of students with mathematics learning disabilities when learning fraction. The research was conducted in an Inclusive Junior High School in the West Java Province, Indonesia. This study is qualitative, with the single-case (holistic) designs. The case will focus on three students who suspected of…

In this proposal, I introduce a method for modeling the dynamics of a sixth-grade student's accommodation of his fractions scheme to include a disembedding operation (Steffe & Olive, 2010). I will describe a three-part approach consisting of a constructivist teaching experiment, retrospective analysis, and stochastic modeling of the student's…

This document reports on a small-group teaching experiment whose goal was to understand how fourth- and sixth-grade children develop concepts of common and decimal fractions. Both the Grade 6 and the Grade 4/5 children were taught common and decimal fractions through discussion and by using manipulatives, beginning with basic concepts of common…

Elementary and middle school education majors in Australia (n=326) and the United States (n=378) were asked to arrange a list of decimals in order from smallest to largest. Only about half of these preservice teachers in each country were able to complete the task correctly. (MKR)

Investigated the continuous fraction concepts of (n=59) students in grades four, five, and six. Students were confident and accurate when performing sharing tasks, but were much less successful on continuous quantity tasks involving formal fraction language and symbol manipulation fraction tasks. (14 references) (Author/MKR)

Decimal numbers have become an increasingly important topic of the elementary and junior high school mathematics curriculum. However, national and state education assessments indicate that students have incomplete and distorted conceptions of decimal numbers. This paper reports initial data from a two-year project designed to elicit and describe…

This study was undertaken to gain insights into children's understanding of rational numbers as quantities; that is, the extent to which they associate a size with a fraction like 2/3. Eight children in an experimental group in DeKalb, Illinois, chosen to reflect the range from low to high ability, were observed during 30 weeks of experimental…

Recommends conducting interviews with students in order to grasp their understanding of fractions and provides interview questions. Presents results of a study using those interview questions and concludes student responses fell into three main categories: (1) described a mental image of an object; (2) drew a model of the fraction using a circle…

A study explored the effectiveness of an instructional approach designed to help students establish connections between their understanding of the decimal system and the stardard symbols and procedural rules used to solve decimal problems. Ten children each in grades 4 through 6 participated. They were individually interviewed prior to and six…

A teaching experiment with six third graders to analyze their ways of operating while solving fraction tasks. Children's quantitative reasoning with fractions was based on their quantitative reasoning with natural numbers. Presents the constructive itinerary of one of the most advanced children in the group. (Contains 44 references.) (Author/MDH)