PME-NA

From Intuition to Formalization: Supporting Sixth Grade Students’ Algebraic Reasoning After Solving Word Problems

• In Event: Poster Session #1
  In Poster Session: From Intuition to Formalization: Supporting Sixth Grade Students’ Algebraic Reasoning After Solving Word Problems

Description

This poster session shares the results of a study of 40 sixth grade students’ strategies for solving a variety of contextualized problems and the scaffolds used by their teacher to connect their informal approaches and notations to algebraic symbols and properties. The teaching environment was focused on problem posing and best practices for building instruction off of students’ original methods for solving problems (Smith & Sherin, 2019). The students used strategies not provided by the teacher ahead of time. Analysis of their written work showed that analytical and structural elements (Kieran, 2022) of algebraic reasoning were evidenced in over 60% of their informal strategies. The teacher’s orchestration of their strategy sharing was considered important in connecting their work and notations to formal mathematical conventions. Implications for future research about students’ pre-algebraic concepts and teacher pedagogical content knowledge will also be described.

Authors

• Laura Brinker Kent, University of Arkansas

• Lynne Stratton, Louisiana Tech University