A fraction has many different images. What are your (and your students') images for ¾?
The Primary and Secondary Strategy “Framework for teaching mathematics” states that one of the important aspects of being numerate is to “have a sense of the size of a number and where it fits in the number system”. Many of the difficulties that learners have with fractions could be seen to derive from a limited number of images of fractions giving an incomplete “sense” of fractions. Coupled with this, the very “dense” or condensed symbolism of (for example) ¾ , if not fully appreciated can cause misconceptions and classic errors such as ¾ + ½ = 4/6.
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