Introduction
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Welcome to the Fraction Foundations MOOC for Educators (MOOC-Ed). Throughout this course, we will explore many concepts of fractions and how students learn these concepts. We will present research-based approaches to teaching fractions that draw on students' intuitive knowledge and build a strong foundation for understanding why operations with fractions make sense.
If you have not yet completed the course pre-assessment, we recommend that you do so before you begin the Unit 1 activities. The pre-assessment is required for those of you who are pursuing a certificate of completion.
We encourage you to personalize your learning by engaging with the resources that best meet your personal learning goals. Resources provided in this MOOC-Ed come in a variety of formats, such as videos, exemplars of student work, tasks, self-assessments, and open web resources, including those recommended by other participants. While the left navigation bar in each unit is numbered, it is not necessary to follow a particular order when engaging with resources in the course. For example, at any point during the course, you can click the Discussion Forum link in the left panel. Here you can share thoughts, questions and resources with the community of educators in the course.
In this unit, we will examine the complexity of fractions from a student perspective and some challenges that students and teachers face with fractions. You will consider your local standards and how they relate to our course content, explore the concept of deeper learning, and begin to plan the course project. We ask you to add richness to our perspectives by sharing your thoughts and insights on what has worked well for you in your practice as well as the struggles you have encountered.
In this unit, we will examine the complexity of fractions from a student perspective and some challenges that students and teachers face with fractions. You will consider your local standards and how they relate to our course content, explore the concept of deeper learning, and begin to plan the course project. We ask you to add richness to our perspectives by sharing your thoughts and insights on what has worked well for you in your practice as well as the struggles you have encountered.
The guiding questions for this unit are:
- Why are fractions so challenging to learn?
- What misconceptions about fractions and fraction operations are common among students?
- What informal strategies and language do students use to solve fraction problems and how can teachers build upon those to help students learn the mathematics of fractions?