Studying Fractions: superficialities, biases, and misunderstandings

Abstract

This article reports on research based on literature in mathematics education to identify, present, and discuss superficialities, biases, and misunderstandings of different orders and various origins concerning the theme of teaching and learning fractions. We produced the research data using a variant of snowballing. After reading one or more relevant articles about our theme, we selected additional articles referenced in the consulted articles that potentially contain relevant information. We grouped the identified superficialities, biases, and misunderstandings into seven categories, each encompassing one or more difficulties. Consequently, we observed that these problematic issues are intertwined with the concepts involved in the subject of fractions when thought of as school mathematical content and are related from the different meanings manifested by fractions in the real world to its notational form, to its existence as a number, to how it is represented physically and pictorially, to the complexity of introducing new and numerous rules regarding its arithmetic, to the forms of conduct preferred by teachers when in the act of teaching. By observing many problematic issues related to the teaching and learning of fractions, we conclude that this theme is an essential front for further theoretical and empirical studies.

Fractions; Teaching; Learning; Difficulties; Rational Numbers