Answer to Question #211878 in Algebra for Maripa

Question

briefly discuss any 3 challenges that learners might experience in learning addition and subtraction of common fractions.

Answer 1

Primary school children experience difficulties when learning the concept of fractions. Learners made a number of errors in the addition and subtraction offractions, including conceptual errors, carelessness errors, procedural errors and application errors.

1. One main reason that students find fraction operations difficult is that they memorize formulae and algorithms instead of understanding fractions.
2. Another is that they perceive the denominator and the numerator in fraction as two separate integers.
3. Also students think the characteristics of fractions are the same as those of other numbers, they try to apply the same rule, and this leads to the development of their misconceptions.