Supporting Fourth-Grade Students' Representations and Solution Strategies for Equal Sharing Problems

• In Event: 16.062 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.062-3 - Research in Mathematics Education

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between the presence of a depictive scaffold (i.e., grounded external representations) and students’ representations and solution strategies for equal sharing problems. Moderating effects of prior knowledge of fractional quantities (fourths, fifths) were also examined. Four equal sharing problems were administrated to 145 fourth-grade students from nine classrooms. Half of the items contained a scaffold and the other half did not. Students’ representations contained fewer superficial elements with a scaffold than without a scaffold. Strategies on the items with a scaffold were more sophisticated, but for problems involving fourths only. Students’ difficulties partitioning area models into five equal pieces (i.e., fifths) can account for the interactive effects of the scaffold and the fractional quantities involved.

Authors

• Helena P. Osana, Concordia University

• Nathalie Duponsel, Concordia University

• Emmanuelle Adrien, Concordia University - Montreal

• Katherine Foster, Concordia University - Montreal