Timeline for Teaching fractions: the generalization problem
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 23, 2014 at 8:22 | comment | added | JP McCarthy | Just define $1/n$ as the solution of $nx=1$, and $m/n=m\cdot(1/n)$ and off you go. | |
| Apr 23, 2014 at 3:08 | answer | added | Benjamin Dickman | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 18:08 | answer | added | Dave L Renfro | timeline score: 5 | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 13:54 | comment | added | JPBurke | I think some info about the type of student you're thinking of does help to situate the question. It makes it easier to put into context for folks who may have thought about it, and also for people who come along later to find both the question and its answers if they may be helped by it. | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 13:41 | comment | added | Jack M | @JPBurke I was thinking about that while writing my post. I was thinking about tutoring a slightly higher level student, as well as simply understanding fractions for ones-self. Maybe my question title is misleading? | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 13:36 | comment | added | JPBurke | While I understand the situation you're describing, I don't recognize this as a problem of teaching fractions, at least at the time fractions is taught to students in the early-to-middle grades. In other words, when students have trouble learning fractions, this is not the problem they have. From an educational standpoint, I would place this in the realm of proving, not fractions. Obviously they're not exclusive, but this sort of thing would be more of a secondary school subject. Proof in the early grades exists, I think, most obviously embedded in "mathematical practices." | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 12:14 | history | asked | Jack M | CC BY-SA 3.0 |