Text

etd_preRUETD

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000055125

doi:10.7282/T3PR7VV3

theses

The case study of a class of twenty-five fourth graders was designed to trace the growth
and development in thinking about fraction ideas prior to the inception of rules and algorithms
within the school curriculum. The project was an outgrowth of a long-term teacher development
collaboration between Rutgers University and the Conover Road School in Colts Neck, NJ. Twenty-five children in Mrs. Phillips' class met with a team of Rutgers researchers fifty one and one-half hour sessions during the school year. This study reports on the first seven of the twenty-five sessions focusing on fraction activities. During all sessions, children were invited to explore activities working with partners or in
small groups. They discussed their solutions and built models to illustrate their findings. Children explained and supported their ideas, first to other small groups and then to the entire class. The fourth-graders built a mathematical community in which ideas were presented, explored and debated. Four pivotal mathematical strands developed in the children's thinking. These strands included a growing understanding of 1) fraction as operator and fraction as number, (2) attention to the naming of the unit or the construction of an assimilation paradigm, (3) fraction comparisons, and (4) equivalence. The work of the children is offered as a powerful existence proof of the mathematical understanding that learners can develop before exposure to the rules and definitions presented in formal curricula.

Ed.D.

Includes abstract

Includes bibliographical references

by Elena Perrone Steencken

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work

ETD

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