Comparison of international baccalaureate primary years program and national curriculum program 4th grade student's misconceptions on the topic of fractions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the misconceptions of fractions in IB Primary Years Program (IBPYP) to the misconceptions of fractions of Ministry of National Education (MoNE) 4th grade students. To measure this, the three most popular subtopics of fractions covered in 4th grade mathematics curriculum were selected. These subtopics were (1) partitioning, (2) ordering and (3) addition. Then, nine questions for each subtopics were developed. Accordingly, a fractions test that included 27 items total was developed and used in this research. Analyses were conducted to determine if different curricula cause any response patterns. Analysis showed that only 7 out of 27 items were answered statistically differently by the IBPYP and MoNE students. PYP students had higher correct answer and lower misconception rates in 6 out of these 7 items. However, in general, the correct answer and wrong answer patterns seemed to have no substantial difference across the two curricula. Also, the results proved that some fractions subtopics were more challenging for students than others. Some suggestions about how to address misconceptions were made in the present study.