COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS IN FRACTIONS – KS1

Useful to adapt and use as discussion points with the children….

Heather RossUniversity of Greenwich

September 2013

Not dividing a shape into equal segments

I have split my shape into 4.They are quarters

Not using the complete set of objects

¼ of the balls are blue..That means 1 ball is blue

and 4 are not.

Not appreciating the denominator

I think ¼ is bigger than ½ as 4 is bigger than 2. I can put

these fractions on a numberline

0 ½ ¼ 1

Not appreciating the numerator

I know that a quarter is smaller than a half. So ¾

must be smaller than ½ as we have shared into 4

pieces of pizza

Confusing halving and doubling

Halving is something to do with the number 2. Half of

my sweets must be 12

The names of the fractions

A half is 1 shared by 2 so it must be called one-twoth

½

Not appreciating that halves can have different values

Pocket money 20pPocket money 40p

JoeEmma

Halve of Joe’s pocket money is 10p. Halve of

Emma’s pocket money can not be 20p as halves have

to be equal