Introduction and Overview

Abstract

More than two decades ago Dienes’ ‘Fractions An Operational Approach’ was published (1967). Here, fractions were approached in more than simply a formal manner. This is evident by, among other things, the way in which the student is addressed. ‘Do not forget that a fractional operator is just a multiplying operator followed by a dividing operator’ (loc. cit. p. 29). Dienes’ book is full of this sort of thing; it is the epitome of New Math. Today, a good twenty years later, this direction in mathematics education has bit the dust. At best, it is still licking the wounds it inflicted. Since then, all sorts of things have been attempted with fractions (“back to basics’, among other things). It is certainly about time for a realistic alternative, and that is the concern of this book. In this way can a promise of work be fulfilled that the Wiskobas department of the IOWO was unable to do at that time.1