Importance Of Misconceptions In Mathematics

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Misconceptions are common place in mathematics. A misconception is defined as 'a perception or concept which does not support the original meaning' and within mathematics misconceptions are frequently misapplied concepts or algorithms. A misconception highlights a students' thinking and how they acquire or fail to grasp mathematical concepts (Cockburn & Littler, 2008).

Misconception 1 relates to question 2 of the sample year 3 Naplan assessment - Money and financial mathematics.
Common misconception students have when dealing with money is distinguishing the size of coins from the value of coins. Often students believe the bigger the coin, the higher the value. Another monetary misconception applies to place value and the student not understanding …show more content…

The knowledge exists to take away the values however their approach is incorrect. Confusion is created in the language used to 'take smaller number from larger' which results in students flipping or reversing numbers to get a result. This is referred to as an inversion error. Many students continue to make inversion errors when taking the smaller number from the larger one irrespective of where the numbers sit in arrangement. Not understanding place value and partitioning of Hundreds, Tens and Ones and the representative value of the digits could lead students to incorrectly answer this question and misconceive that a 4 in the tens place represents 4 instead of 4 groups of ten which equals 40. Teachers can model and use manipulatives such as MAB blocks to provide opportunities for students to remedy this misconception (Ojose, …show more content…

Many students conceive that the larger the denominator indicates a larger value (i.e.) 1/5>1/3>1/2>1/1. Students also misconceive that in adding fractions they add the numerators and denominators and the answers result in separate whole numbers (i.e.) 1/2+1/2=1+1=2 and 2+2=4 instead of the correct answer as 1. Students may choose incorrect answers through a lack of understanding of mathematical language relating to 'left' or 'half' as in question 6. Visually students can identify 8 biscuits in the picture and with that knowledge relate the question to halve this amount answering 4 or identifying half the picture blank, assume the answer would be 8. Hands on practice of adding sectors of fractions can assist students to understand the parts of a whole (Drews,

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