Identifying Equivalent Pictorial Representation of a Fraction & a Whole: A Problem for 13-year Olds in Malaysia

13 year old students in Malaysia are found to have difficulties identifying equivalent pictorial representations of fractions. Many were able to associate number of equal partitions in a pictorial representation of a fraction to its denominator. Some were able to circle shapes with simple representations of a fraction but not the equivalent pictorial representation of the same fraction. They were also not able to name fractions when both equal and equivalent partitions occur in the same pictorial representation of a fraction and can handle equivalent pictorial representation of a “whole” in a mixed number better than 2/2 or 4/4.