A Survey Of Sixth Grade Students’ Understanding Of Fractional Multiplication And Division

Fractional multiplication and division knowledge plays an important role in the primary school mathematics learning stage.The teaching of this section is also the key and difficult point in primary school.In China,most teachers just emphasize the algorithm,only pay attention to whether the students calculate correctly,and do not pay attention to the students’ understanding of the knowledge of fraction multiplication and division.So how well do sixth-graders who are about to enter junior high school understand fractional multiplication and division? What problems do students have when learning this part of knowledge? In this study,287 sixth-grade students from a small town in JangSu province were selected as subjects,and the knowledge of fractional multiplication and division was divided into four dimensions,"reference unit"," partitioning and iterating "," appropriate " and " multiplication comparisons ",by using the classification dimensions of fractional multiplication and division knowledge in foreign DTMR fraction test questions.To understand students’ understanding of fractional multiplication and division.Through investigation and interview,the following conclusions are drawn: Sixth grade students have difficulty in understanding "reference unit"," partitioning and iterating " and " multiplication comparisons ".Most students do not understand the arithmetic of fractional multiplication and division;they do not understand that quantity is regarded as unit 1 in the operation;they lack the consciousness of partitioning and iterating;they cannot transit from integer multiple to fractional multiple.Through the analysis the teaching material of Jiangsu Education Press and get some suggestions: Material should pay attention to intuitive reasoning in the derivation of fraction multiplication and division.Teachers should enrich students’ representation system and pay attention to students’ understanding of arithmetic.