Abstract
The twenty-nine chapters of this volume on early algebraization, which include an introduction and commentary for each of the three main parts, reveal the rich diversity that characterizes the rapidly evolving field of early algebra. The volume articulates the ways in which researchers are currently conceptualizing early algebraization from curricular, cognitive, and instructional perspectives, and thus offers to researchers, teachers, curriculum developers, professional development educators, and policy makers alike some of the most recent thinking in the field. The research that is presented herein, research that is shaping both our ways of thinking about the nature and components of algebraic thinking and the routes by which its growth might be encouraged, includes the following focal themes: Thinking about the general in the particular; Thinking rule-wise about patterns; Thinking relationally about quantity, number, and numerical operations; Thinking representationally about the relations in problem situations; Thinking conceptually about the procedural; Anticipating, conjecturing, and justifying; Gesturing, visualizing, and languaging. The impact of this research will be felt not only on the way in which children come to think about their mathematics at the elementary and middle school levels, but also on the way in which high school students come to engage with algebra.
Arithmetic itself must be viewed with ‘algebra eyes’
(Subramaniam & Banerjee, this volume)
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Kieran, C. (2011). Overall Commentary on Early Algebraization: Perspectives for Research and Teaching. In: Cai, J., Knuth, E. (eds) Early Algebraization. Advances in Mathematics Education. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17735-4_29
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