THE USE OF CONCRETE MATERIALS IN FRACTION EDUCATION
Mathematics teaching, Fraction teaching, Handling material
The objective of this work is to investigate the cases of learning difficulties on fractions commonly detected in elementary school classes. To carry on this research it will be taught some contents of fractions to students of 6th Grade, using tractable materials. Firstly, the content of fractions will be taught in a traditional way and then the answers will be collected in test. The same content will then be explained with the touchable materials, assuming that the student will participate of the construction and development of them. The student takes the main part of learning process, being altogether the author of his own learning, and the teacher will be only a supervisor. Then another questionnaire with the same level of difficulty will be applied and the results are compared. After developing the contents with explanations using touchable materials, it is expected the student to have better perform in the resolutions of the activities, with more appropriated answers. However, the experience of working the contents fraction with touchable materials can be said to bring positive results because students are willing to face this challenge and thus solve activities with these materials and participate in content development with high self-esteem.