The Importance of the Process over the End Result
Is it important to know how many halves are there in a whole, or one-eighth in a whole? Does it relate to our daily life? Why do we learn fractions? By learning factions, we learn a skill set - to be able to visualise and make sense out of symbols. If we are able to visualise that 4 equal portions in 12 portions is one third, we would then know one-third of an object is the same as three-ninth or four-twelfth of an object.
This gives me meaning as to why we learn fractions. It is really not about the answer we are just aiming at, but the processing and visualising skills involved. The whole point about this is not just about learning that fractions has a set skill which is to visualise, it also means that in math or any other subject matter, we should teach with the meaning for children to understand why rather than memorising steps to get to the answers. When they know why, they would be able to translate that knowledge on to other problems or tasks which they will face.
