title: Development of fraction concepts and procedures in U.S. and Chinese children.
abstract: We compared knowledge of fraction concepts and procedures among sixth and eighth graders in China and the United States. As anticipated, Chinese middle school children had higher knowledge of fraction concepts and procedures than U.S. children in the same grades, and the difference in procedural knowledge was much larger than the difference in conceptual knowledge. Of particular interest, national differences in knowledge of fraction concepts were fully mediated by differences in knowledge of fraction procedures, and differences between the knowledge of Chinese and U.S. children were most pronounced among the lowest achieving children within each country. Based on these and previous results, a theoretical model of the mutually facilitative interaction between conceptual and procedural knowledge of fractions is proposed and discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: dhbailey@uci.edu.
authors.forename: Drew H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xinlin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yiyun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Jiaxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
authors.forename: Lynn S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.affiliation: School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.affiliation: Instructional Research Group, Los Alamitos, CA 90720, USA.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gersten
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Siegler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001076:Aptitude; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002681:China; D032882:Comprehension; D003210:Concept Formation; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D014481:United States
keywords: Cognitive development; Conceptual knowledge; Fractions; Mathematical development; Numerical magnitude representations; Procedural knowledge