Fraction Multiplication and Division Word Problems Posed by Different Years of Pre-Service Elementary Mathematics Teachers

Tuba Aydogdu-Iskenderoglu

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.7.2.373

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">It is important for pre-service teachers to know the conceptual difficulties they have experienced regarding the concepts of multiplication and division in fractions and problem posing is a way to learn these conceptual difficulties. Problem posing is a synthetic activity that fundamentally has multiple answers. The purpose of this study is to analyze the multiplication and division of fractions problems posed by pre-service elementary mathematics teachers and to investigate how the problems posed change according to the year of study the pre-service teachers are in. The study employed developmental research methods. A total of 213 pre-service teachers enrolled in different years of the Elementary Mathematics Teaching program at a state university in Turkey took part in the study. The “Problem Posing Test” was used as the data collecting tool. In this test, there are 3 multiplication and 3 division operations. The data were analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. The findings suggest that, regardless of the year, pre-service teachers had more conceptual difficulties in problem posing about the division of fractions than in problem posing about the multiplication of fractions.</p>

Highlights

Teaching involves everything that teachers do to support their students, including the interactive work of teaching lessons in classrooms and all the tasks that arise in the course of that work
It is important for pre-service teachers to know the conceptual difficulties they have experienced regarding the concepts of multiplication and division in fractions and problem posing is a way to learn these conceptual difficulties
The findings suggest that, regardless of the year, pre-service teachers had more conceptual difficulties in problem posing about the division of fractions than in problem posing about the multiplication of fractions

Summary

Introduction

Teaching involves everything that teachers do to support their students, including the interactive work of teaching lessons in classrooms and all the tasks that arise in the course of that work. At the same time, teaching involves planning for those lessons, making and managing homework, evaluating students’ work, attending to concerns about equality, explaining the classwork to parents, writing and grading assessments, and dealing with the school principal, who often has strong views about the mathematics curriculum (Ball, Thames & Phelps, 2008). To assume all these tasks, it is important that teachers be qualified. The concept of rational numbers is one case in point that presents particular challenges to teach as well as to learn

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