Proportions and Percentages

Course Overview

Proportional reasoning is one of the crucial mathematical ideas students develop over the school years. It is a good indicator of learners’ understanding of the relationship between two quantities through one to one correspondence at primary level. At middle and secondary level the understanding of proportional reasoning integrates understanding of rational numbers and related multiplicative concepts, and at the same time, it lays the foundation for more complex concepts of mathematics. Proportional reasoning has been an umbrella term that covers the thinking behind many concepts like equivalent fractions or equivalent ratios, rates, algebraic representation of ratios, direct and inverse variations, from scaling and to similarity, trigonometry and even concepts like probability. It is important to recognise that the proportional reasoning as an ability helps to identify the ‘relative’ relation between the quantities and/ or change rather than the absolute quantity/change. Percentage expressed as notations for proportions are special as they allow conversion of comparison of quantities in any situation in terms of parts within 100 (“cent” in percent stands for 100). Since it becomes easier to compare quantities using 100 as a landmark, percentages have proved to be quite useful in many mathematical citations including situations related to commercial mathematics involving dividend, discounts and budgets etc.

In this course, we will explore part-whole (continuous quantity and discrete quantity), equivalent fractions, proportions, decimal, and percentage and relationships amongst the concepts related proportions. It examines case studies of student thinking, their understanding, misconceptions and explores resources to address the concepts.

Who can join this course?

Teachers, Educator, anyone interested in teaching Mathematics at high school level

Course Staff

Subject Lead

Dr. Ruchi Kumar

Module Designing Team

Dr. Abdulwaheed Salihu, Dr. Bijoy Hangmo Subba, Dr. Ugyen Dorji, Dr.Faustine Kastory Nziku, Dr.Mustapha A.Kiswanya

Supported by

Arushi Bansal, Anirudh Agarwal

Reviewed by

For Inclusion : Dr. Apoorva Panshikar and Prof. Sujata Bhan

For Content and PCK : Dr. Shikha Takker

TISSx authoring

Dr. Anitha Bellappa, Janani VR

CL4STEM

This module was designed as part of The Connected Learning for STEM Project (CL4STEM www.connectedlearningforstem.org). It aims to build capacities of secondary school teachers in Science and Mathematics to foster higher-order thinking with inclusion and equity. CL4STEM is a South-South collaboration among higher educational institutions to adapt and pilot the CLIx model of TPD developed and implemented in India, (www.clix.tiss.edu) in Tanzania, Nigeria, and Bhutan. CL4STEM modules for teacher professional development are Open Educational Resources and involve teachers in short courses and online communities of practice to enrich classroom practice with Pedagogical Content Knowledge, and understanding of Inclusion.

The knowledge generated from this project has been disseminated to stakeholders in the ministries of education and relevant regulatory and professional bodies to seed it into the policy agenda of these countries. Key insights from this project have been shared with other researchers and opinion leaders in the spirit of creating global public good.

Frequently Asked Questions

What web browser should I use?

The Open edX platform works best with current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari.

How can I access the course on a smartphone?

You can access the course via TISSx app on your Android smartphone. You can install the app from Playstore.

Connected Learning for STEM (CL4STEM) by CETE, TISS is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0