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When is three quarters not three quarters? Listening for conceptual understanding in children's explanations in a fraction interview
Mitchell, Annie Clarke, Doug
Mitchell, Annie
Clarke, Doug
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Abstract
Twelve students across Grades 2 to 6 were interviewed individually using a range of tasks, where the mathematical focus was a conceptual understanding of fractions. Careful listening established that despite giving a correct answer and appearing to have conceptual understanding, further probing sometimes revealed that the child had only a faulty procedural understanding. Similarly, success on one task did not guarantee success on a different but related task. Conversely, a task involving a continuous quantity enabled a child to move between discrete and continuous interpretations of fractional parts. This study supported the claimed advantages of one-to-one interviews over pen and paper tests, but also highlighted the importance of careful listening and the need for multiple tasks in the one mathematical domain in eliciting understanding.
Keywords
Education Assessment and Evaluation;--Primary education
Date
2004
Type
Conference item
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
367-373
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ACU Department
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Open Access Status
Open access
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Controlled