The role of generalized arithmetic in the development of early algebraic thinking

Abstract

International audienceThe purpose of this study is to characterize early algebraic thinking in relation to students' understanding of generalized arithmetic concepts and procedures. The participants of the study were 203 Grade 6 students. Data were collected from two tests which focused on number, operations, equivalence, and equality properties. The first test included arithmetic tasks which could be solved by either strategies based on calculations or strategies based on arithmetic structure, while the second test included algebraic tasks which involved letters-symbolic representations. The results indicate that students who were able to solve arithmetic tasks using arithmetic structure were also able to solve algebraic tasks. The findings imply that generalized arithmetic abilities underpin the syntactical manipulation of algebraic expressions and exemplify why seeing structure is a highly important process of early algebraic thinking