RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Invoking Conceptual Change in Adult Learners: “Seeing” Fractions Differently
Page: 1070
I was charged with developing and implementing a course redesign to improve low success rates in the lowest university-level developmental mathematics course (median ACT score = 17). As part of the initial implementation of the course redesign a diagnostic assessment was given to understand the nature of students’ conceptions of foundational concepts. Student responses on several items indicated that over 25% of students had a dominant part-whole conception of fractions; not seeing fractions in terms of measures. This dominant part-whole conception of fractions also influenced how students reasoned about items involving other concepts (e.g., addition of fractions and ratio comparisons). In this preliminary report the results that led to our conclusions, the instructional intervention we used to move students’ conceptions of fractions forward, and the impact of the intervention, based on the results of the post-assessment, on students’ conceptions of fractions will be shared.