Predominance of Procedural Knowledge and Between-Operation Interference as Deduced from Fraction Errors of Preservice Teachers

The study of fractions in Philippine mathematics curriculum starts as early as first grade. In spite of the regular rehearsal of this mathematical topic through secondary school level, many students reach college without showing adequate skills in fraction. This study determined the performance and analyzed the errors of preservice teachers in dealing with fractions. Findings revealed that preservice teachers’ performance in solving fractions reached an unacceptable level. Prevalent errors were demonstrated when adding dissimilar fractions, adding a mixed number and a fraction, and multiplying a mixed number by a fraction, because the dominant procedural knowledge in fraction addition interferes with their knowledge of fraction multiplication, and vice versa. Moreover, preservice teachers exhibit low level of content knowledge of fractions as shown in their inability to add common fractions and their failure to translate mixed numbers into equivalent fractions.

Keywords: learning, mathematics, fractions, preservice teachers, procedural