How Do 13-Year-Olds in Malaysia Compare Proper Fractions?

Abstract

In an effort to understand the problems and difficulties students faced in learning fractions, a study was carried out on Form 1 students from four different types of secondary schools in Perlis, Malaysia. Five different questions on proper fractions were constructed involving two fractions with equal and different denominators, and more than two fractions with different denominators. A Rasch analysis was done on the responses to help assess their level of conceptual understanding.The whole number concept was very dominant as some of the students treated the numerators and denominators separately, showing their confusion and unstable thinking in fractions learning. Keywords: Fraction understanding, proper fraction, whole number, Rasch analysis © 2017 The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

Journal

Title: Journal of ASIAN Behavioural Studies

Abbreviated Title: jABs

Publisher: e-IPH Ltd.

ISSN Electronic 2514-7528

Publication date Created January 01 2017

Publication date (Electronic): January 01 2017

Volume: 2

Issue: 2

Page: 27

DOI: 10.21834/jabs.v2i2.177

Copyright statement: © 2017

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Product

Self URI (journal page): https://jabs.e-iph.co.uk

Self URI (article page): http://jabs.e-iph.co.uk/index.php/jABs/article/view/177

Self URI (pdf): http://jabs.e-iph.co.uk/index.php/jABs/article/download/177/232