Fractions: Common Misconceptions And How To Address Them

Hi, I'm Rebecca, and in this film, we're going to look at some of the common misconceptions that arise with fractions. So let's start with comparing fractions. Here, pupils are asked to compare 1/8 and 1:6. Many pupils will incorrectly think that 1/8 is larger than 1/6 because the digit 8 is larger than the digit 6. To combat that, give pupils lots of opportunities to to use concrete apparatus like fraction tiles or a fraction wall so that they can physically see which ones are bigger. And then we come on to fractions of shapes. Here we have three squares that are all divided into quarters. And many pupils make a misconception that the parts of the shape need to look the same in order to be the same size. So when you're faced with a shape that looks like this, they don't believe they are equal. To combat this, give pupils lots of opportunity to use squares of paper that they can fold and manipulate to, to compare the sizes and see that they are equal. And then another misconception is with adding fractions, many people will think that one third add one third is equal to 2/6 because they've added the numerator and the denominator. So get your pupils to think about it like this. One pen add one pen is two pens. So one third add one third is two thirds. You can also do this with a bar model to show that one third add one third equals two thirds. So there you go. There's just some common misconceptions that arrived with fractions.