Dorcas Katiambo

Understanding Primary Fractions: the Concept of Fractions Dorcas Katiambo

Fractions form a major area of primary mathematics and in turn lay a foundation for future learning of related topics. Errors and difficulties commonly encountered in the learning and computation of fractional sums create a big hindrance to understanding of this concept by the primary school pupils; as reflected in their performance in the end of primary cycle examinations. A thorough understanding of concepts in their initial stages of learning plays a major role to future learning of the same and related topics in future levels of learning. It is pertinent too to understand the effect of age and gender in the learning of primary fractions as a step towards laying the best foundation for children as they assimilate and accommodate familiar or related areas of learning. Understanding Primary Fractions will go a long way to sensitize teachers of mathematics, teacher trainers and other educators about errors commonly encountered in the teaching and learning of fractions; how to better their pedagogical skills in order to assist the young children to understand better this concept of fractions as well as related areas in higher levels of learning and in their future careers.