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Function Tasks, Input, Output, and the Predictive Rule: How Some Singapore Primary Children Construct the Rule

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Teaching and Learning Algebraic Thinking with 5- to 12-Year-Olds

Part of the book series: ICME-13 Monographs ((ICME13Mo))

Abstract

Function-machine tasks are not part of the formal Singapore Primary Mathematics curriculum and hence not taught formally. The corpus of data shows that provision of the expressions input, output, and ‘the rule is’ aided primary children, particularly those in the upper primary grades, to construct the predictive rule underpinning function-machine tasks. Children’s annotations showed that many were willing to write the literal form of input ± a = output, while others were open to the symmetric equivalence construct of the non-literal form of output = input ± a. Primary children’s knowledge reflected the spiral structure of the Singapore Primary Mathematics curriculum, where number facts and processes are introduced in bite sizes. Children at all upper grades found implicit functions challenging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore, 637 616, Singapore

    Swee Fong Ng

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  1. Swee Fong Ng
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Correspondence to Swee Fong Ng .

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  1. Département de Mathématiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Carolyn Kieran

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Ng, S.F. (2018). Function Tasks, Input, Output, and the Predictive Rule: How Some Singapore Primary Children Construct the Rule. In: Kieran, C. (eds) Teaching and Learning Algebraic Thinking with 5- to 12-Year-Olds. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68351-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68351-5_7

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68351-5

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