Establishing the Importance of the Unit

Cheryl K. Van Ness; Alice S. Alston

Jump to Content

Establishing the Importance of the Unit

In: Children's Reasoning While Building Fraction Ideas

Authors:

Cheryl K. Van Ness

Cheryl K. Van Ness
Search for other papers by Cheryl K. Van Ness in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

and

Alice S. Alston

Alice S. Alston
Search for other papers by Alice S. Alston in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 49–64

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1007/9789463510080_008

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

This chapter, using data from Session 3 of the intervention, focuses on the students’ initial reasoning when comparing fractions. The investigation begins with a context about sharing candy bars presented as a real-life dilemma by Researcher Carolyn Maher. The discussion posed the question of equity when sharing different-sized candy bars. The resulting “candy bar” metaphor about unfair comparisons when the unit is changed illustrates what Davis described as a “tool for thinking” (1984). Reference to this metaphor recurs as the students build solutions to the problem: Which is larger, 1/3 or 1/2, and, if one fraction is larger, how much larger? The students’ activity, using Cuisenaire rods to model the problem in ways that conform to their agreed rule that the unit must stay the same, is illustrated in the VMCAnalytic entitled: Which is larger, 1/2 or 1/3: An Introduction to Comparing Unit Fractions, located in the Video Mosaic Collaborative (http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3V40X3R).

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789463510080/BP000008.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Children's Reasoning While Building Fraction Ideas

Series: Mathematics Teaching and Learning, Volume: 3

E-Book ISBN:: 9789463510080

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2017

Subjects
- Education
  - Children Education
  - Mathematics Education

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	58	21	6
Full Text Views	2	0	0
PDF Views & Downloads	2	0	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Establishing the Importance of the Unit

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Children's Reasoning While Building Fraction Ideas

Table of Contents

Metrics

Metrics