This workshop examines the familiar procedure of simplifying in fraction multiplication as a powerful site for developing conceptual understanding. Rather than treating simplification as a rule (“just cancel”), the session positions it as an expression of deeper mathematical structure.

Drawing on research and a teacher-education classroom episode, the workshop highlights how learners can correctly apply procedures without understanding why they work. Participants will unpack how commutativity and associativity justify simplifying within an expression, and how equivalence and invariance underpin these actions.

Through tasks that use visual, symbolic, and verbal representations, participants will explore how simplifying can be reframed as reasoning about relationships rather than as reducing numbers. The session emphasises discourse, multiple representations, and explicit attention to structure as key pedagogical tools.

Aligned with the conference theme, the workshop connects curiosity (questioning “why does this work?”) with connection (linking fraction procedures to broader mathematical properties). It is particularly relevant for teachers seeking to deepen both their own and their students’ understanding of fractions.