Misconceptions of Sixth Grade Secondary School Students on Fractions

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the misconceptions of 6th-grade secondary school students in terms of part-whole relation in frac-tions, representation of fractions on the number line, comparison of fractions and operations in fractions. The sample of this study is composed of 104 students who are being educated in 6th-grade of five secondary schools in 2017-2018 teaching year in a province which takes place in the north part of Turkey. Fractional information test, which consists of 5 open-ended questions developed by researchers, was used as data collection tool. The data of the study were analyzed using the content analysis method and in this method frequency/percentage tables were used. By examining the explanations that the students have made, the incorrect answers are divided into categories, and the misconceptions in each question are presented separately. As a result of the study, it has been seen that students have misconceptions in terms of parts-whole relation in fractions, representation of fractions on the number line, comparison of fractions and operations in fractions.

Keywords

• Mathematics education
• misconceptions
• fractions