Student Performance in Dealing With Fractions

ABSTRACT Differences in student performance when fractions were presented in the contexts of (a) understanding the meaning of fractions, (b) computations with fractions, and (c) solving word problems involving fractions were investigated. A test on fractions involving three parts, namely, a concept test, an operations test, and a problem-solving test was administered to 155 sixth-grade students. Student performance was highest on the operations test and lowest on the problem-solving test. No differences in performance on four operations were observed when fractions were presented in computations. Addition problems were the simplest to perform in word problems, and multiplication problems were the most difficult. Relationships with previous mathematics achievement and gender were also analyzed.