Abstract
M.Ed. (Mathematics in Education)
Primary school learners need to extend their knowledge of numbers to include common fractions. Common fraction concepts are important but learners find it more complicated and difficult to understand than whole numbers, they experience it as particularly challenging. Fraction consists of sub constructs which is adding to the complexity of fractions.
The aim of this study was twofold, firstly, to identify the conceptual and procedural knowledge about common fractions that learners need to acquire from grade four to seven to enable them to be able to do calculations with fractions. The second aim was identifying effective teaching strategies to enhance learners’ conceptual and procedural knowledge about common fractions.
Primary school learners are mainly in the concrete operational stage of development according to Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Although the learner can reason, the ability to reason is based on tangible objects and direct experiences. The obstacles that learners encounter in developing deep understanding of fractions can be due to the nature of fractions or due to the instructional approaches employed by the teachers.
Learners are able to understand at a concrete level, their reasoning is consistent with respect to real objects. To enable learners to develop meaning and understanding of fractions, learners should be provided with many experiences in partitioning quantities into equal parts. Teachers must ensure learners make the connections between the concrete models, manipulatives and pictures that are equally divided. Learners need to be able to represent numbers using words, models, diagrams and symbols and be able to make the connections between the representations.
From a constructivist view learners construct their own knowledge and the learning of subject matter is the product of an interaction between what they are taught and the knowledge they bring to the learning situation.