Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention
Learning fractions poses a challenge for many elementary school students, including applying fraction knowledge in novel contexts. For instance, there are substantial individual differences in students’ tendency of spontaneous focusing on quantitative relations (SFOR), which is related to the develo...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for Psychology
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Numerical Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6363 |
| _version_ | 1797968553176989696 |
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| author | Saku Määttä Minna Hannula-Sormunen Hilma Halme Jake McMullen |
| author_facet | Saku Määttä Minna Hannula-Sormunen Hilma Halme Jake McMullen |
| author_sort | Saku Määttä |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Learning fractions poses a challenge for many elementary school students, including applying fraction knowledge in novel contexts. For instance, there are substantial individual differences in students’ tendency of spontaneous focusing on quantitative relations (SFOR), which is related to the development of rational number knowledge. In this study, 4th grade students (N = 129) took part in a quasi-experimental study comparing an intervention condition (n = 71) aimed at improving students’ multiplicative relational reasoning and fraction knowledge with a control condition (n = 58) of business as usual fraction instruction. Five lessons of intervention activities were designed to promote students ability to recognize and describe multiplicative relations in their everyday surroundings. There was an overall positive effect on the students’ mathematical knowledge. Students who participated in the intervention improved their ability to recognize and describe multiplicative relations embedded in pictures representing everyday situations. There were no significant differences in the development of fraction knowledge despite replacing five traditional fraction lessons. These findings provide further evidence that researchers and educators should continue to pay attention to issues surrounding students’ spontaneous mathematical focusing tendencies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:48:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4cf56d596ae64d1287f36f68a4f19652 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2363-8761 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T02:48:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Numerical Cognition |
| spelling | doaj.art-4cf56d596ae64d1287f36f68a4f196522023-01-02T17:05:53ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for PsychologyJournal of Numerical Cognition2363-87612022-03-0181365210.5964/jnc.6363jnc.6363Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom InterventionSaku Määttä0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7073-0453Minna Hannula-Sormunen1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6106-2569Hilma Halme2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4357-5977Jake McMullen3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7841-7880Department of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandDepartment of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandDepartment of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandDepartment of Teacher Education, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandLearning fractions poses a challenge for many elementary school students, including applying fraction knowledge in novel contexts. For instance, there are substantial individual differences in students’ tendency of spontaneous focusing on quantitative relations (SFOR), which is related to the development of rational number knowledge. In this study, 4th grade students (N = 129) took part in a quasi-experimental study comparing an intervention condition (n = 71) aimed at improving students’ multiplicative relational reasoning and fraction knowledge with a control condition (n = 58) of business as usual fraction instruction. Five lessons of intervention activities were designed to promote students ability to recognize and describe multiplicative relations in their everyday surroundings. There was an overall positive effect on the students’ mathematical knowledge. Students who participated in the intervention improved their ability to recognize and describe multiplicative relations embedded in pictures representing everyday situations. There were no significant differences in the development of fraction knowledge despite replacing five traditional fraction lessons. These findings provide further evidence that researchers and educators should continue to pay attention to issues surrounding students’ spontaneous mathematical focusing tendencies.https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6363fractionfraction magnitudefraction representationmultiplicative relationsinterventionspontaneous focusing on quantitative relations |
| spellingShingle | Saku Määttä Minna Hannula-Sormunen Hilma Halme Jake McMullen Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention Journal of Numerical Cognition fraction fraction magnitude fraction representation multiplicative relations intervention spontaneous focusing on quantitative relations |
| title | Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention |
| title_full | Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention |
| title_fullStr | Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention |
| title_full_unstemmed | Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention |
| title_short | Guiding Students’ Attention Towards Multiplicative Relations Around Them: A Classroom Intervention |
| title_sort | guiding students attention towards multiplicative relations around them a classroom intervention |
| topic | fraction fraction magnitude fraction representation multiplicative relations intervention spontaneous focusing on quantitative relations |
| url | https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6363 |
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