Learning the Fraction: Teaching Suggestions from the Past

Abstract

This article shows how man throughout history has come to attribute to the concept of fraction all the meanings that have been given to it, according to the classification carried out by Kieren (1975, 1980). We want to show how knowledge of the evolution of mathematical discourse (Sfard, 2015) over the course of history has also allowed an evolution in mathematical meanings. This is certainly useful for reflections and considerations on teaching if one wants to consider the parallelism between the development of thought in man on a psychological level and the historical evolution of humanity's thought.