The importance of the common fraction in the primary school

Abstract

This article describes a study that investigated fractions used in everyday life, people's perceptions of what fractions should be taught in schools, and the abilities of 9- to 11-year-old pupils to do fractions. The two instruments used were a questionnaire distributed to groups of people in various occupations, and a mathematics test administered to 9- to 11-year-old pupils. The findings suggest that: 1) more emphasis should be placed on the teaching of common fractions in primary schools, 2) older pupils perform better than younger pupils, and 3) word problems requiring pupils to use more than one arithmetic operation were found to be very difficult