Browsing by Subject "fraction concept"

Aims. The primary purposes of this study are to identify the characteristics of the fraction concept and to demonstrate the teaching of the fraction concept with mathematical manipulatives in primary school level. The topic was chosen because of an awareness of the importance of using mathematical manipulatives and an interest in teaching the challenging concept of fractions. A minor aim was also to find the most suitable model for demonstrating fractions. Methods. This study is a literature review. Scientific studies, but also a number of teacher’s fraction guides, were used as sources for information. Most of the sources were in English. Results and conclusions. The findings from the literature illustrate how the key characteristics of the fraction concept are the relative nature of fractions, equivalency, expanding and reducing fractions and the structure of the fraction notation (denominator and numerator). The most common models introduced in literature for demonstrating fractions are area model, set model and linear model. All of these models can be used for demonstrating the fraction concept. The important steps in teaching the fraction concept with models are declaring the meaning of the whole, partitioning and identifying equivalence activities, defining the roles of denominator and numerator in the fraction notation inductively and practicing the strategies for comparing fractions mentally. The next step is practicing expanding and reducing in the context of fraction addition and subtraction. According to literature it is not appropriate to find one specific demonstrative model that would be most suitable for demonstrating everything about fractions. On the contrary, every model becomes both impractical and inexplicit at some point. The findings support varying of different models in demonstrating fractions to provide versatile learning.