Open AccessThe influence of instructional intervention on children's understanding of fractions[Note 1. This work was supported by a Grant‐in‐Aid for Scientific ...]
Author(s) -
Yoshida Hajime,
Shinmachi Yoshinobu
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
japanese psychological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5884
pISSN - 0021-5368
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5884.00122
Subject(s) - mathematics education , schema (genetic algorithms) , psychology , computer science , information retrieval
An experimental instructional program based mainly on an equal‐whole schema in fractions was given to two fourth‐grade classes of a Japanese elementary school. As a control, conventional teaching based on a traditional Japanese textbook was given to another fourth‐grade class. The study tested the hypothesis that students given the experimental program would understand order and magnitude as central characteristics of fractions better than those who were instructed using the traditional textbook. Students in the experimental group showed better understanding of both the order of fractions and the representation of the sizes of fractions than did the textbook group. However, there were no differences between the experimental and textbook groups in the performance of assessment tasks which were less related to the equal‐whole schema. These results are discussed in view of the important instructional aim of having students understand fractions.