Mathematics Students Seminar Series: Partitioning: A Critical Key in Understanding the Constructs of Fractions

Mathematics Student Seminar Series
Partitioning: A Critical Key in Understanding the Constructs of Fractions

by Jenny Lou Bermejo
PhD Math Ed

Date: Friday, 29 April 2022
Time: 4 pm
Venue: bit.ly/AdmuMathSeminar

Fostering fractional knowledge is important in elementary school mathematics (Litwiller & Bright, 2002) and this knowledge includes the transition from part-whole construct to measure constructs of fractions. To facilitate the transition, ‘partitioning’, the foundational mental action is required. Inadequate comprehension of this mental action poses challenges to the interlinkage of the different constructs of fractions. Furthermore, partitioning is not only used simply to subdivide a whole into equal-sized parts but also to compare this part to other fractions. This study aimed to further analyze the obstacles that partitioning can create for learners. The participants consisted of 36 pupils who were in the fourth grade in a public school in Cainta, Rizal. A test on the concept of fractions from TIMSS released items was modified and administered. Using the methods of Steffe and Olive (2009) on Children’s Fractional Knowledge, the solutions and responses of the students were reinvestigated for the potential obstructions in understanding fractions. It was found that students can only partition a single figure. Using the partitioned figure for equivalent fractions and the comparison of fractions is difficult among students. This lack of understanding of partitioning in the part-whole construct of fractions will generate more difficulties as they move to learn other constructs.