The Early Development of Algebraic Reasoning: The Current State of the Field

Abstract

The main aim of this chapter is to argue that an early start to algebra education is possible and of great relevance for mathematics education because it provides a special opportunity to foster a particular kind of generality in our students’ thinking. To argue this, we map the various views on algebra education found historically, and trace how the perceptions that mathematics educators hold about children’s thinking and learning have changed. Overall, a great realisation that children can do more in mathematics than was previously believed leads to the adoption of more ambitious objectives for the initial years of school, and to the development of new classroom approaches to algebra education in the early grades. That does not mean teaching the same old school algebra in the same usual way to younger children, but rather to introduce them to new algebraic ways of thinking and immersing them in the culture of algebra . The chapter ends with a research agenda to further developments in this particular sub-field of mathematics education.

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