Adult learners' understandings of fraction questions

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis was to investigate adult learners' understandings of fractions. A particular focus of this work was to determine if students responses to fraction questions could be grouped together on the basis of similarity of response; and, to explore the feasibility of such groupings into a notional hierarchy, such as the theoretical framework of the SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy of Biggs and Collis (197, 1982). ... There are three main findings from this work. The first was that adult learners' responses to fraction questions can be interpreted within the theoretical framework of the SOLO Taxonomy. The second finding was that there was some similarity observed between the structure of mature-age learners' responses to fraction questions and those offered by younger children. Finally, the issue of placing a fraction question into a context (in-context), or presenting them in a traditional textbook style (context-free) is also discussed, although the evidence from this study was inconclusive.