Elementary students’ recognition of algebraic structure: Not all tasks are created equal

Date

2012-04-13

Author

İşler Baykal, Işıl
Maria, Blanton
Knuth, Eric
Marum, Tim
Gardiner, Angela

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

88
views

0
downloads

This paper reports results from a written assessment given to 290 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students. We share and discuss students’ responses to items addressing their understanding of equation structure and the meaning of the equal sign. We found that while an operational view of the equal sign was predominant, some students were able to recognize underlying structure in arithmetic equations. The degree to which students were successful varied from task to task, with extremely “obvious” tasks such as 5 + 3 = ___ + 3 being more apt to elicit structure-based strategies. Our findings can inform early algebra efforts by identifying tasks that have the potential to help students begin to think about equations in a structural way.

URI

http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/Annual_Meeting/Final%20Program/ProgramSchedule.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/86105

Conference Name

Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, 13 - 17 Nisan 2012

Collections

Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Equation structure and the meaning of the equal sign: The impact of task selection in eliciting elementary students' understandings Stephens, Ana C.; Knuth, Eric J.; Blanton, Maria L.; İşler Baykal, Işıl; Gardiner, Angela Murphy; Marum, Tim (Elsevier BV, 2013-06-01) This paper reports results from a written assessment given to 290 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students prior to any instructional intervention. We share and discuss students' responses to items addressing their understanding of equation structure and the meaning of the equal sign. We found that many students held an operational conception of the equal sign and had difficulty recognizing underlying structure in arithmetic equations. Some students, however, were able to recognize underlying structure on ...
Grade 6 students' abilities to represent functional relationships İşler Baykal, Işıl; Stephens, Ana; Fonger, Nicole; Blanton, Maria; Gardiner, Angela; Knuth, Eric (2017-01-01) This paper reports results from Grade 6 students' written work on a functional thinking assessment item. The results show that students who experienced an early algebra intervention during Grades 3-5 were more likely to successfully represent a function rule in words and variables than students who did not. Also, both comparison and intervention groups of students were found to be more successful representing a function rule in variables than in words. The results underscore the impact of early algebra on s...
Journey into Doctoral Candidacy: A Grounded Theory Study of Doctoral Qualification Exam Process Burakgazi, Sevinc Gelmez; Yıldırım, Ali (2017-01-01) The purpose of this study is to investigate the process doctoral students go through in qualification exam. Within a grounded theory design, a series of in-depth interviews were carried out with six doctoral candidates to inquire into their thoughts and experiences. Data collection started four months before the qualification exam and ended approximately a month after the exam had been taken. A total of 127 pages of interview transcripts were produced as a result of interviews. The data from these interview...
Assessment in the 5th grade mathematics classrooms: a case study of the teachers’ practices Uçar Sarımanoğlu, Nihan; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Department of Elementary Education (2016) The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematics teachers’ assessment practices in the 5th grades. In that manner, it was aimed to figure out the mathematics teachers’ classroom assessment procedures and their use of the assessment results. It was also aimed to understand teachers’ views about the students’ learning of mathematics, the factors affecting teaching mathematics, and their views about assessing students’ learning of mathematics. In order to achieve these purposes, a multiple case study d...
Student Performance Task Assessment Using Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Techniques: An Application for 9th Grade Chemistry Course YÜKSEL, MEHMET; Geban, Ömer (2018-10-01) Bu araştırma öğrenci performans görevinin değerlendirilmesinde karşılaşılan bazı ölçme ve değerlendirme problemlerinin çözümlenmesi amacıyla yapılmıştır. Çalışmada çok ölçütlü karar verme teknikleri kullanılmıştır. Performans görevlerinin değerlendirilmesinde kullanılan kriterler ve öğrenme alanlarının ağırlıkları AHP ile hesaplanmıştır. Kriterlerin seçimi TOPSİS tekniğiyle bilişsel, duyuşsal ve devinişsel alanların ağırlıkları esas alınarak yapılmıştır. Çalışmanın sonuçlarına göre performans kriterlerinin ...

Citation Formats

I. İşler Baykal, B. Maria, E. Knuth, T. Marum, and A. Gardiner, “Elementary students’ recognition of algebraic structure: Not all tasks are created equal,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association, 13 - 17 Nisan 2012, 2012, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/Annual_Meeting/Final%20Program/ProgramSchedule.pdf.