Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines

JeongWon Kim

doi:10.29333/ejmste/14469

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JeongWon Kim ¹ ^*

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¹ Bongmyeong Elementary School, Daejeon, SOUTH KOREA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Number lines are acknowledged as an effective model for understanding fractions, yet students often face challenges in interpreting fractions on number lines. This study contributes to the field by investigating students’ performance on fraction number line tasks that require the coordination of their fraction and number line knowledge. To explore this, test items were developed, and 122 fourth-grade students participated in the assessment. Students’ written responses underwent analysis in three phases: a descriptive overview of overall student performance, latent profile analysis to identify subgroups with different competencies, and a qualitative analysis of each latent profile. The findings indicated lower performance among students across the tasks, revealing three distinct latent profiles with different competency characteristics: intuitive, emergent, and advanced understanding of fractions on the number line. From these findings, instructional implications were extrapolated for using number lines as a model for fractions.

Keywords

number line
fractions
latent profiles
young students

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2024, Volume 20, Issue 5, Article No: em2444

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

Publication date: 01 May 2024

Online publication date: 17 Apr 2024

Article Views: 244

Article Downloads: 163

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How to cite this article

APA

Kim, J. (2024). Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 20(5), em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

Vancouver

Kim J. Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2024;20(5):em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

AMA

Kim J. Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2024;20(5), em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

Chicago

Kim, JeongWon. "Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2024 20 no. 5 (2024): em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

Harvard

Kim, J. (2024). Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 20(5), em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469

MLA

Kim, JeongWon "Profiles of young students’ understanding of fractions on number lines". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 20, no. 5, 2024, em2444. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/14469