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A Focus on Fractions
Bringing Research to the Classroom
By Marjorie M. Petit, Robert E. Laird, Edwin L. Marsden
- Price: $37.95
- Binding/Format: Paperback
- ISBN: 978-0-415-80151-5
- Publish Date: May 10th 2010
- Imprint: Routledge
- Pages: 194 pages
Series: Studies in Mathematical Thinking and Learning Series
Description
A Focus on Fractions is the first book to make cognitive research on how students develop their understanding of fraction concepts readily accessible and understandable to pre- and in-service K– 8 mathematics educators. This important resource assists teachers in translating research findings into their classroom practice by conveying detailed information about how students develop fraction understandings as well as common student misconceptions, errors, preconceptions, and partial understandings that may interfere with students learning. Using extensive annotated samples of student work, as well as vignettes characteristic of classroom teachers’ experiences, this book equips educators with knowledge and tools to reveal students’ thinking so that they can modify their teaching to improve student learning of fractions concepts.
Special Features:
- End of Chapter Questions provide teachers the opportunity to analyze student thinking and consider instructional strategies for their own students.
- Instructional Links help teachers relate concepts from the chapter to their own instructional materials and programs.
- Big Ideas and Research Reviews frame the chapters and provide a platform for meaningful exploration of the teaching of fractions.
- Answer Key posted online offers extensive explanations of in-chapter questions.
A Focus on Fractions bridges the gap between what mathematics education researchers have discovered about the learning of fraction concepts and what teachers need to know to make effective instructional decisions.
Reviews
"To watch teachers interact with the research and practical suggestions in this book is exhilarating. The real joy, however, is seeing them use this learned knowledge as they instruct their students. This is a book for all of us who have struggled to help students make sense of fractions."
--Mary Montgomery Lindquist, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Mathematics Education, Emeritus, Past President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
"A Focus on Fractions draws on research from mathematics education to produce a classroom-friendly system of formative assessment. Classroom teachers, mathematics educators, teacher education students, and researchers in the field will find what is in this book useful and interesting."
-- Judith Zawojewski, Associate Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology
"This book is a tour de force in relating research and practice in mathematics education, and as such it should also be of great interest to researchers and graduate students in the field."
--Edward A. Silver, William A. Brownell Professor of Education, University of Michigan
Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Modeling and Developing Understanding of Fractions
Chapter 2 – Inappropriate Use of Whole Number Reasoning
Chapter 3 – What is the Whole?
Chapter 4 – Partitioning
Chapter 5 – Comparing and Ordering Fractions
Chapter 6 – Number Lines
Chapter 7 – Density of Fractions
Chapter 8 – Equivalence
Chapter 9 – Addition and Subtraction of Fractions
Chapter 10 – Multiplication and Division of Fractions
Download Support Materials here:
- Answer Key for Chapter One (1.39 MB)