Learning Fractions Through Folding in an Elementary Face-to-Face Classroom

Abstract

This chapter describes a data set used for analysis by Shirouzu, Tausan-Matu, and Chiu and discussion by Lund in the following chapters. The data set consists of a lesson that involves six children studying the multiplication of fractions in a 6th grade classroom in Japan, and their recall of its content after five months. The task for the children was to cut out three-fourths of two-thirds of a piece of origami paper, and then discuss whether or not their solutions were the same. As a result, the children created eight solutions of five types, and reached the conclusion that these solutions were the same, because their area equaled one-half of the whole by the multiplication 2/3 x 3/4. Not all of the children, however, remembered this conclusion in their long-term recall. The three researchers analyzed the interaction that took place during the lesson, as well as its relationship to recall in the next three chapters, which are integrated by Lund in her discussion chapter.