Examining the Changes in Prospective Teachers’ Knowledge on Writing Story Problems

We investigated how an instruction on conceptual understanding of fraction concepts and operations, and an instruction on writing story problems changed prospective teachers’ (PTs) knowledge on writing story problems for fraction number sentences. We also compared the effect of two instructional approaches, error analysis and direct instruction, on PTs’ knowledge for writing story problems. Receiving an instruction on fraction concepts and operations, and on writing story problems had a significant effect on PTs’ knowledge on writing story problems. However, we did not find any significant difference between the two instructional approaches. In general, writing story problems for fraction addition number sentences was easy for most PTs before they received the instruction. PTs showed the highest improvement for fraction subtraction and division number sentences, however writing story problems for fraction multiplication number sentences remained as a challenge for most PTs