The present study examined preservice elementary teachers' performance on the problems of multiplication and division of fractions and compared their performances and analyzed the misconceptions. An instrument including 11 fraction multiplication and division tasks was given and the task involved three contexts: making own story problem,…

To provide effective fractions instruction, teachers need deep understanding of fraction concepts (i.e., content knowledge) and skill in using visual representations of fractions to support student learning (i.e., pedagogical content knowledge); yet, research indicates that many pre- and in-service teachers lack knowledge in both areas. The…

The aim of this study is to investigate Danish pre-service teachers' (PSTs) mathematical and didactical knowledge of operations with rational numbers. This knowledge is studied through their collaborative activities to certain tasks related to the teaching of operations with rational numbers. An explicit model of the teachers' mathematical and…

The purpose of this study was to examine four pre-service middle and high school mathematics teachers' understanding of the directly and inversely proportional relationships presented through hands-on and real-world missing-value word problems. The problems included single and multiple proportions, and the PSTs were provided with plastic gears and…

The aim of this study is to examine the semantic structures used by mathematics teacher candidates to transform algebraic expressions into verbal problems. The research is a descriptive study in the survey model, which is one of the quantitative research types. The study group of the research consists of 165 teacher candidates studying in the…

Using memorized rules and algorithms without coherence and understanding is a perennial problem for teachers and students especially in the teaching and learning of fraction operations. I present data in which prospective middle school teachers explain a commonly used rule for fraction division--keep-change-flip. I argue that using both strip…

Despite the importance of teacher fractional knowledge, there are several areas of teacher understanding that are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to characterise profiles of pre-service teachers' (PSTs) mathematical competence on the topic of fraction multiplication by examining PSTs' understanding of multiplication of fractions…

This study examines preservice elementary teachers' (PTs) knowledge for teaching the associative property (AP) of multiplication. Results reveal that PTs hold a common misconception between the AP and commutative property (CP). Most PTs in our sample were unable to use concrete contexts (e.g., pictorial representations and word problems) to…

What does it look like to "understand" operations with fractions? The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) uses the term "understand" when describing expectations for students' knowledge related to each of the fraction operations within grades 4 through 6 (CCSSI 2010). Furthermore, CCSSM elaborates that…

I explore the impact of ambiguous referral to the unit on understanding of decimal and fraction operations during episodes in two different mathematics courses for pre-service teachers (PSTs). In one classroom, the instructor introduces a rectangular area diagram to help the PSTs visualize decimal multiplication. A transcript from this classroom…