How Do 13-year Olds in Malaysia Compare Fractions?

In an effort to understand the problems and difficulties students faced in learning fractions, a study was carried out on Form 1 students from 5 different types of secondary schools in Malaysia. A Rasch analysis was used to help assess the level of fractions conceptual understanding among these students. There were students who were not quite able to compare two fractions with the same numerator but different denominators, and they had a more problem when asked to compare more than two fractions. The whole number concept was very dominant in play here, the larger the denominator, the bigger the fraction.