Pre-service teachers’ procedural and conceptual knowledge of fractions

The study examined pre-service elementary teachers and newly accepted secondary non-math and science major students at a university. The study examined weaknesses of students in conceptual and procedural understanding of fractions. It also examined whether there were differences in math fractional knowledge for both groups. The study found students’ weaknesses were in solving word fraction problems, in dividing, multiplying, adding and subtracting fractions. Moreover, the study found that on procedural knowledge of fractions, newly accepted students significantly had higher knowledge than preservice elementary teachers. The study did not find significant differences on conceptual understanding of fractions or knowledge of over-all fractions.