This study examined preservice elementary teachers' change in their understanding of fraction operations while taking a mathematics methods course focused on grades 3-5. The preservice teachers (n = 48) completed an assessment before and after the course's unit on the teaching and learning of fractions. Specifically, the preservice teachers were…

This article examines prospective elementary teachers' conceptions of unitizing with whole numbers and fraction concepts and operations throughout a semester-long mathematics content course. Student work samples and classroom conversations are used to illustrate the types of unitizing understandings that prospective teachers bring to teacher…

Students enrolled in post-secondary developmental mathematics courses hold mathematical misunderstandings that begin before their college careers. Specifically, these students struggle with conceptual understanding of fractions, ratios, and proportions. The Common Core State Standards in Mathematics outline standards for K-12 mathematics…

In this paper, we present a design experiment in a "Teaching Mathematics" course for prospective elementary teachers where we sought to develop a "measurement approach" to fractions. We focus on the conceptualization of the mathematical content of the approach. We attribute our progress in the conceptualization to our efforts…