The students' mastery of fraction and its relation to the students' abilities on its prerequisites

Abstract

Fraction is one of the important topics in learning mathematics. However, it is still challenging for students. Lack of students' mastery of the prerequisite topics might be one of the potential causes. For this reason, this study aims to: 1) Investigate whether students' mastery of fractions and prerequisite topics in the 7th grade of a junior high school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia has reached the minimum learning mastery standard and 2) Investigate the relationship between students' mastery of fractions and their abilities to understand the prerequisite topics in the 7th grade of a junior high school in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. This study used a quantitative approach. Data were collected from 50 students selected randomly from all of the 7th grade students in the junior high school. The results showed that the students' mastery of fractions and their abilities to understand the prerequisites has achieved the minimum learning mastery standard. Also, there is a significant relationship between students' fractions mastery and their abilities in the prerequisites. Finally, the lack of students' mastery of the prerequisites resulted in students' beliefs that the concept of fractions is difficult.