Number Bias – It’s a Thing!
We all know the hazards of being biased, but did you know that number bias can hamper a student’s understanding of fractions? Learn how our research subjects overcame it last summer.
A Recipe for Fractions
If you cook, you use fractions. So why not use cooking to teach fractions? During the holidays my favorite recipes feed a small army, and when I’m cutting them in half, it always reminds me that cooking in an American kitchen uses plenty of fractions. That’s why I couldn’t resist adding a recipe to the […]
A Fraction-Algebra Sandwich
Peck and Matassa (2016) recently published a research paper that reinforced why fraction division and multiplication is such an important topic for children to master. We often hear that understanding fractions is a gateway to learning algebra, and these authors offered some pretty compelling reasons why that’s the case. Before we get to the study, […]
Connecting Whole Number & Fraction Division
In Newton’s Nemesis, I created Theo’s precocious little sister Leah not only because I was like that to my older sister (yes, I regret that a little bit now) but because I wanted to connect division with whole numbers and fractions. There is some evidence that the difficulties with fraction division are rooted in understanding division…
Starting a Research Blog on Dividing by Fractions
When I first envisioned using a comic book to teach fractions, I naturally went online to see if anyone had thought of the idea yet. There were plenty of resources on teaching the concept of a fraction, and even adding and subtracting. But when I searched…
