Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge of Fractions

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue XI, November 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge of Fractions

Wahab S. Kolawole

Department of Mathematics, Government Secondary School Hajj Camp, Gwagwalada Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract:-The main purpose of this study was to assess Nigerian prospective mathematics teachers’ knowledge of fractions. This study adopted descriptive research design using ex-post facto type. The study population comprised of all 300L prospective mathematics teachers in F.C.T College of Education, Zuba Abuja. The study used Fraction Knowledge Test (FKT) and a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 68 prospective mathematics teachers who were selected by the use of simple random sampling. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regressions at 0.05 level of significance. Result of the findings revealed that prospective teachers displayed better fraction knowledge on procedure than on conception; they had difficulty in division of fractions because of their inadequate knowledge in multiplicative thinking and their fraction procedural knowledge moderately correlated with their problem solving. Based on the findings, it was recommended that universities and colleges of education in Nigeria should, as a matter of urgency, help prospective teachers to develop deep understanding of mathematics (especially fraction concept) that they need for their future teaching and proper monitoring of teaching activities in both primary and secondary schools school be intensified.

Keywords: Prospective mathematics teachers, knowledge and fraction

I. INTRODUCTION

There is no way we talk of fraction as a concept in mathematics without mentioning mathematics itself. Mathematics can be described as the study of quantity, structure, shape and change. It developed, through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning from counting, calculation measurement, and the study of shapes and motions of physical objects. It also explained further that it is the study of patterns of structure, change and space; more informally, one might say it is the study of “figure and numbers.” Mathematics is also used as an instrument for validation in the developmental affairs such as social, technological etc, through the manipulation of data for example, our opinion rely on statistical data, our health is controlled by indices of our body chemistry. We are socially classified according to our income and daily life is paced by schedules, dates and time, it is reasonable to conclude that mathematics- a celebrated key to achievement, man’s supreme intellectual achievement and most original creation of the human spirit.

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