Relation understanding is preferable over instrumental understanding as it helps the 

Relational understanding in mathematics is when a student not only knows how to carry out a procedure but also understands the underlying concepts and the connections between different mathematical ideas.

Key Points

Benefits of Relational Understanding:

• Connection Between Concepts: Students can see the relationships between different mathematical ideas, such as how fractions relate to division, ratios, and percentages.
• Flexibility in Problem-Solving: They can approach problems from different angles and apply their understanding to new and unfamiliar situations.
• Long-Term Retention: This understanding is more likely to be retained because it is based on comprehension, not just memorization.
• Critical Thinking: Students develop the ability to reason and think critically about mathematical problems.

Hence, we can conclude that Relational understanding helps the child to make connections between different mathematical ideas and makes it easy for him to solve the problem.

Additional Information

• ​Instrumental understanding, on the other hand, involves knowing the steps or procedures to solve a problem without necessarily understanding why those steps work.
• It’s more about memorization and the mechanical application of rules.