?ult?ple representat?ons and development of students' self-confidence on rational number
Keywords:
Fractions, instructional practices, multiple representations, students’ self-confidenceAbstract
- In spite of the fact that analytical programs change and mathematical school texts adapt to new education needs, students, internationally, continue to have difficulties when handling fractions. This paper presents the results of a research conducted on students of the 5th and 6th grade of elementary school and its purpose was to investigate at what extent the use of multiple representations is possible to help students cope with difficulties on mathematics and thus to boost their self -confidence in mathematics. For that purpose, the concepts of fractions was chosen are classification of fractions as a representation on the number line, as well as the concepts of the unit’s division in equal parts and the concept of the improper fractions. Thus, we present education practices were applied by our research team. These teaching practices take into account the results as stated by international bibliographies as well as years of research of our team on rational numbers. They emphasize on multiple representations, use of experiential activities and activities carried out on electronic platforms. In additional, the present research deepens with semi-structured interviews of the participants. The results of the research indicate that students after instructive interventions with the use of multiple representations performed better on fractions and increased their self -esteem in mathematics.
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