THE PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS UNDERSTANDING OF FRACTION AND HOW AND HOW FUTURE INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE IMPROVED TO OPTIMIZE LEARNING

Abstract

"There is an ongoing debate on whether preservice teachers should be taught the mathematics content knowledge because they start their mathematics content courses believing that they know enough mathematics to teach at a primary school level. Previous research has shown that much of the preservice teachers’ knowledge lacks conceptual understanding. Consequently, the current study explored preservice teachers’ knowledge of fractions. The study focuses on preservice’ teachers’ knowledge when comparing sizes of different fractions. The study will identify what the preservice teachers know about the comparison of size when it comes to fractions. A better understanding of how student teachers understand mathematics will inform better teaching methods for future instructions. This is to inform better instructional design in future ITE courses. The needed data consisted of 90 preservice teachers’ activity scripts and a task-based interview of some students. The study was guided by the research question: What is the preservice teachers’ understanding of fraction comparison, and how can future instruction be improved to optimize learning? The study adopted a mix-method approach where preservice teachers' responses to activities items were analysed from a first-year module conducted at a university level. Content analysis of the data yielded important findings that showed that preservice teachers have some misconceptions when they must determine the bigger fraction between the two. This study may be helpful to academics designing initial teacher education courses for mathematics and teachers who are already teaching mathematics in primary schools."