Multiplication of fractions is a deceptively easy skill for students to learn. In a large school district in Minnesota, fifth-grade students identified as being in the lower quartile on the district's mathematics competency test had great difficulty with all the fraction items except multiplication of fractions. Although only 18 percent of these students could find the sum of 1/2 and 1/8, 75 percent could find the product of 2/3 and 4/7. Students can successfully multiply, for example, 2/3 and 4/7, using their whole-number ideas. The answer. 8/21, can be calculated without considering the meaning of either of the fractions or of the answer.
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Cramer et al. (1991) studied this question.
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