Prospective Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ (PMTs) Content Knowledge about Concepts ‘Fraction’ and ‘Rational Number’

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the content knowledge of prospective middle school mathematics teachers (PMTs) on the concepts ‘fraction’ and ‘rational number’ and relationship between them. This study, in which mixed type (quantitative+qualitative) research approach is used, was carried out with 164 PMTs in total, who study in the department of middle school mathematics teaching of the Faculties of Education in three different state universities in Turkey. “Fraction-Rational Number Test (FRNT)” consisting of six questions was used as data collection tool. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data, and each question was separately assessed. Results showed that approximately 37% of the PMTs answered the questions in FRNT as completely true, and approximately 23% of them answered as wrong category. It was also found out that some of PMTs confused the concepts of fraction and rational number and used them interchangeably. From these results, it can be said that the content knowledge of PMTs on ‘fraction’ and ‘rational number’ concepts and relationship between them is not at sufficient level.