Pre-service teachers’ intuitive conception about fractions

Abstract

Individuals are familiar with the concept of fractions, but what are their intuitive conceptions? In this exploratory research, we study the intuitive conceptions through two components: the interpretations and the registers of representation. To do this, we submitted an open-ended survey to Swiss pre- service teachers. The results show the prevalence of two interpretations (part-whole and quotient) and two registers of representation (symbolic and visual). This suggests the coexistence of a spontaneous conception of the part-whole associated with one or the other of the registers of representation and knowledge coming from teaching related to quotient interpretation.