• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.351-373
• /
• 2017

The meanings of division don't change and rather are connected from whole numbers to rational numbers. In this respect, connecting division of natural numbers, division of fractions, and division of decimal numbers could help for students to study division in meaningful ways. Against this background, the units of division of fractions and division of decimal numbers in fifth grade were redesigned in a way for students to connect meanings of division and procedures of division. The results showed that most students were able to understand the division meanings and build correct expressions. In addition, the students were able to make appropriate division situations when given only division expressions. On the other hand, some students had difficulties in understanding division situations with fractions or decimal numbers and tended to use specific procedures without applying diverse principles. This study is expected to suggest implications for how to connect division throughout mathematics in elementary school.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.147-162
• /
• 2007

This paper reports an analysis of 19 Chinese and Korean middles school mathematics teachers' understanding of division by fractions. The study analyzes the teachers' responses to the teaching task of generating a real-world situation representing the meaning of division by fractions. The findings of this study suggests that the teachers' conceptual models of division are dominated by the partitive model of division with whole numbers as equal sharing. The dominance of partitive model of division constraints the teachers' ability to generate real-world representations of the meaning of division by fractions, such that they are able to teach only the rule-based algorithm (invert-and-multiply) for handling division by fractions.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.235-249
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to analyze the error patterns and sentence types in word problems with respect to 1$\frac{3}{4}$$\div$$\frac{1}{2}$ which were made by the pre-service elementary teachers, and to suggest the clues to the education in pre-service. Korean elementary teachers in pre-service misunderstood 'divide with $\frac{1}{2}$' to 'divide to 2' by the Korean linguistic structure. And they showed a new error type of 1$\frac{3}{4}$$\times$2 by the result of calculation. Although they are familiar to 'inclusive algorithm' they are not good at dealing with the fractional divisor. And they are very poor at the 'decision the unit proportion' and the 'inverse of multiplication'. So, it is necessary to teach the meaning of the fractional division as 'decision the unit proportion' and 'inverse of multiplication' and to give several examples with respect to the actual situation and context.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.103-121
• /
• 2005

This article compares and analyzes mathematics textbooks of North Korea, South Korea, China and Japan and draws meaningful ways for introducing the division algorithm of fractions. The analysis is based on the five contexts: 'measurement division', 'determination of a unit rate', 'reduction of the quantities in the same measure', 'division as the inverse of multiplication or Cartesian product', 'analogy with multiplication algorithm of fractions'. The main focus of the analysis is what context is used to introduce the algorithm and how much it can appeal to students. This analysis supports that there is a few differences of introducing methods the division algorithm of fractions among those countries and more meaningful way can be considered than ours. It finally suggests that we teach the algorithm in a way which can have students easily see the reason of multiplying the reciprocal of a divisor when they divide with fractions. For this, we need to teach the meaning of a reciprocal of fraction and consider to use the context of determination of a unit rate.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.71-91
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze operation sense in detail with regard to division of fraction. For this purpose, two sixth grade students who were good at calculation were clinically interviewed three times. The analysis was focused on (a) how the students would understand the multiple meanings and models of division of fraction, (b) how they would recognize the meaning of algorithm related to division of fraction, and (c) how they would employ the meanings and properties of operation in order to translate them into different modes of representation as well as to develop their own strategies. This paper includes several episodes which reveal students' qualitative difference in terms of various dimensions of operation sense. The need to develop operation sense is suggested specifically for upper grades of elementary school.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.685-706
• /
• 2009

This dissertation is aimed to investigate the reason why a contextualization is needed to help the meaningful teaching-learning concerning multiplications and divisions of fractions, the way to make the contextualization possible, and the methods which enable us to use it effectively. For this reason, this study intends to examine the differences of situations multiplying or dividing of fractions comparing to that of natural numbers, to recognize the changes in units by contextualization of multiplication of fractions, the context is set which helps to understand the role of operator that is a multiplier. As for the contextualization of division of fractions, the measurement division would have the left quantity if the quotient is discrete quantity, while the quotient of the measurement division should be presented as fractions if it is continuous quantity. The context of partitive division is connected with partitive division of natural number and 3 effective learning steps of formalization from division of natural number to division of fraction are presented. This research is expected to help teachers and students to acquire meaningful algorithm in the process of teaching and learning.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.13-28
• /
• 2007

Division of fractions can be categorized as measurement division, partitive or sharing division, the inverse of multiplication, and the inverse of Cartesian product. Division algorithm for fractions has been interpreted with manipulative aids or models mainly in the contexts of measurement division and partitive division. On the contrary, there are few interpretations for the context of the inverse of a Cartesian product. In this paper the significance and the limits of existing interpretations of division of fractions in the context of the inverse of a Cartesian product were discussed. And some new easier interpretations of division algorithm in the context of a Cartesian product are developed. The problem to determine the length of a rectangle where the area and the width of it are known can be solved by various approaches: making the width of a rectangle be equal to one, making the width of a rectangle be equal to some natural number, making the area of a rectangle be equal to 1. These approaches may help students to understand the meaning of division of fractions and the meaning of the inverse of the divisor. These approaches make the inverse of a Cartesian product have many merits as an introductory context of division algorithm for fractions.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.317-328
• /
• 2011

We analyzed errors committed by Korean prospective elementary teachers in finding and interpreting quotient and remainder within measurement division of fractions. 65 prospective elementary teachers were participated in this study. They solved a word problem about measurement division of fractions. We analyzed solutions of all participants, and interviewed 5 participants of them. The results reveal many of these prospective teachers could not tell what fractional part of division result means. Thses results suggest that teacher preparation program should emphasize interpreting calculation results within given situations.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.431-455
• /
• 2013

In this thesis, I classified various meanings of fraction into two categories, i.e concept(rate, operator, division) and model(whole-part, measurement, allotment), and surveyed appearances which is shown in Korea elementary mathematics textbook. Based on this results, I derived several implications on learning-teaching of fraction in elementary education. Firstly, we have to pursuit a unified formation of fraction concept through a complementary advantage of various concepts and models Secondly, by clarifying the time which concepts and models of fraction are imported, we have to overcome a ambiguity or tacit usage of that. Thirdly, the present Korea's textbook need to be improved in usage of measurement model. It must be defined more explicitly and must be used in explanation of multiplication and division algorithm of fraction.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.301-316
• /
• 2012

Ball, Thames & Phelps(2008) introduced the idea of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching(MKT) teacher. Specialized Content Knowledge(SCK) is one of six categories in MKT. SCK is a knowledge base, useful especially for math teachers to analyze errors, evaluate alternative ideas, give mathematical explanations and use mathematical representation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the elementary teacher's SCK. 29 six graders made word problems with respect to division fraction $9/10{\div}2/5$. These word problems were classified four sentence types based on Sinicrope, Mick & Kolb(2002) and then representative four sentence types were given to 10 teachers who have taught six graders. Data analysis was conducted through the teachers' evaluation of the answers(word problems) and revision of students' mathematical errors. This study showed how to know meanings of fraction division for effective teaching. Moreover, it suggested several implications to develop SCK for teaching and learning.