Teaching Fractions With Technology: What Type of Support Do Students Need as They Learn to Build and Interpret Visual Models of Fractions Ordering Problems?
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Mendiburo, Maria; Hasselbring, Ted; Biswas, Gautam
- Source
- Journal of Cognitive Education & Psychology. 2014, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p76-87. 12p.
- Subject
- *INDIVIDUAL differences
*COMPUTER systems
*STUDY & teaching of fractions
*ACCURACY
*EARLY Learning Skills Analysis
*VIRTUAL reality
*COMPUTER software
- Language
- ISSN
- 1945-8959
This study examined 78 students as they began learning how to use a computer sys-tem to create visual models of fractions ordering problems and then use the visual models to reason about the correct answers to the problems. We used quantitative data collected by the computer system during a 2-day intervention to identify groups of students with similar performance characteristics. After the intervention, we con-ducted individual interviews with 10 students for the purpose of investigating qualita-tive differences between the groups. Our results indicated that most of the 78 students learned to use the computer system to create accurate models in a relatively short period, but not all students learned how to use the models to reason about the correct answers to the problems by the end of the intervention. We hypothesize that we can improve future versions of the system by creating differentiated scaffolds for students with different performance characteristics. In addition, we may be able to improve the learning outcomes associated with implementing this type of technology in class-rooms by providing teachers with more detailed data about their students' perfor-mance and the correct and incorrect strategies their students use to solve problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]