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Helping Students Come to Grips With the Meaning of Division
Author(s) -
Aubrecht Gordon J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2004.tb18250.x
Subject(s) - meaning (existential) , division (mathematics) , multiplication (music) , mathematics education , simple (philosophy) , relation (database) , epistemology , computer science , sociology , psychology , mathematics , arithmetic , philosophy , combinatorics , database
Many years ago, Arons pointed out the incomprehension science students exhibit of the basic mathematical operations multiplication and division and the need to address the problem in physics classes to assure student understanding of the physical world. McDermott et al.'s Physics by Inquiry program does address this need directly and in detail (by defining two meanings for division). However, in the author's classes many students had relatively low scores (ranging from 60–80%) when trying to explain simple operations. Reported in this paper are ways to supplement the text that force students to address the actual meaning of division by stressing the relation between a “whole” and a “package,” and connect that meaning with previously learned operational definitions for area and volume.