An investigation of fourth-grade students’ performance and errors when translating symbolic to visual representations of fractions

This study aims to determine the performance of fourth-grade students when translating symbolic representations of fraction concepts into visual representations, as well as the errors they make in translation. The participants consisted of 249 fourth-grade students (9–10 years) from two public primary schools in Ankara, the capital of Türkiye. Data were collected via the Symbolic-Visual Translation Questionnaire in Fractions instrument, which consisted of four open-ended questions. Students’ translation performance in fraction concepts was analyzed using cross-tabulation and the Chi-square test. Students’ translation errors in fraction concepts were identified using content analysis. The results of the study indicated that students’ translation performance differs significantly between fraction concepts. Students had the highest translation performance in proper fractions. Students also made various errors when translating symbolic representations of fraction concepts into visual ones. Students were found to make more errors with improper fractions and mixed numbers compared to other fraction concepts.