PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Abstraction and quantitative reasoning in construction of fractions as operators
Page: 1256
Drawing from task-based interviews, classroom observation, and participants’ homework, thepresent study examines ten middle grades preservice teachers’ understanding of the role offractions as operators, with an eye toward exploring how fractional reasoning is constructed.The results point to the construction of the reversible distributive partitioning scheme as arequisite for understanding fractions as operators. Further discussion will suggest that schoolcurricula and teacher education programs may need to be adjusted to reflect more currentunderstanding of both early childhood cognitive development and future teachers’ fractionalknowledge.Key words: