2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Analyses of both informal knowledge and cognitive barriers in ratio concepts
| Project/Area Number |
12610135
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
教育・社会系心理学
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan University (2001-2002)
University of Miyazaki (2000) |
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Principal Investigator |
YOSHIDA Hajime College of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (80094085)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KURIYAMA Kazuhiro Kyushu University on welfare and health, Professor, 社会福祉学部, 教授 (10170094)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Keywords | fraction / cognitive obstacles / understanding / instructional intervention |
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| Research Abstract |
The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that acquisition of the concepts of equal-partitioning and equal-whole, which constitute implicit knowledge in fractions, promotes understanding of fractions. To test the hypothesis an experimental program based on both the equal-partitioning and equal-whole was developed for three third grade classrooms in a Japanese elementary school. As a control, conventional teaching based on a Japanese textbook was provided in two third grade classrooms. The present study tested the hypothesis that students given such an intervention program would understand order and magnitude as central characteristics of fractions better than those who had been instructed using a traditional textbook. Students in the experimental group showed significantly better understanding of the equal-partitioning of fractions and the representation of the sizes of fractions than did those in the textbook group. There were, moreover, no differences between the experimental and textbook groups in the performance of routine tasks frequently found in the textbook. These results are discussed in view of the important instructional aims of having students understand fractions.
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