| How are teachers supported to teach fractions? |
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Research taster
The National Numeracy Strategy (NNS) includes many examples of part-whole situations in its advice on how to teach fractions and this way of looking at fractions is often used to introduce fractions in primary schools. When you teach fractions in this way, the denominator shows the number of equal parts into which a whole is cut and the numerator shows the number of parts taken. For instance, if a pizza is cut into four equal parts and Sam eats one, Sam eats 1/4 of the pizza. The 1 and the 4 both refer to parts of the pizza. Another way of presenting a fraction problem is to focus on sharing. Is one cake shared between three people the same as two cakes shared between six people? One study shows that most Year 4 and Year 5 pupils find fraction problems presented as sharing problems easier to solve correctly than part-whole problems. Surprisingly, the NNS offers relatively few examples of solving fraction problems through sharing. 
Your evidence
You may wish to revisit the advice offered by the Numeracy Framework for teaching pupils about fractions to explore the supportive examples it offers. What examples and diagrams can you find that illustrate a) part-whole relationships? and b) solving fraction problems by sharing or division? You could also work with colleagues to scan a range of text-books for examples of fraction problems set in a range of contexts and discuss with them what methods of explaining fractions they use. Moving forwards Having explored alternative methods of teaching fractions, you might wish to explore how your pupils respond to these alternatives. Do you find, like the research study, that your pupils find it easier to solve fraction problems based on sharing than on part-whole relationships? How might this affect your approach to the issue in future? Find out more  Nunes et al (2006) Fractions: difficult but crucial in mathematics learning Teaching and Learning Research Programme Research Briefing no.13. Available at: http://www.tlrp.org/pub/documents/no13_nunes.pdf The full project is The role of awareness in the teaching and learning of literacy and Numeracy in Key Stage 2 (2001 – 2004) by Prof. Terezina Nunes, Prof. Peter Bryant and Dr. Jane Hurry. The project website is at: http://www.tlrp.org/proj/phase11/phase2h.html |
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