Middle-School Students' Understanding of the Equal Sign: The Books They Read Can't Help

By Nicole M. McNeil, Laura Grandau, Eric J. Knuth, Martha W. Alibali, Ana C. Stephens, Shanta Hattikudur, Daniel E. Krill. 2006

192 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Statistics and Probability

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/26d07760d51c3b5d95c241a638f07f957d9b3e61

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

How to develop mathematics-for-teaching and for understanding: the case of meanings of the equal sign (2010, background): “‘‘operation equals answer’’ (McNeil et al. 2006), which is often described for elementary arithmetic.”
Measure for Measure: what Combining Diverse Measures Reveals About Children's Understanding of the Equal Sign as an Indicator of Mathematical Equality (2012, background): “These errors are thought to result from children’s almost exclusive exposure to problems in standard (indicated)-operations-equals-answer format (e.g., 4 + 5 = 9) (Falkner et al., 1999; McNeil et al., 2006; Li et al., 2008).”
Assessing Knowledge of Mathematical Equivalence: A Construct-Modeling Approach. (2011, unknown): “4; McNeil et al., 2006).”
Sources of Differences in Children's Understandings of Mathematical Equality: Comparative Analysis of Teacher Guides and Student Texts in China and the United States (2008, background): “This context fosters inductive bridging that forms the basis for transitioning between the standard and non-standard contexts of the equal sign (cf., Capraro & Capraro, 2006; McNeil et al., 2006).”
A Is for Apple: Mnemonic Symbols Hinder the Interpretation of Algebraic Expressions (2010, methodology): “As many researchers have shown, different ways of thinking about a particular concept can be activated depending on the context (Barsalou, 1982; McNeil & Alibali, 2005a; McNeil et al., 2006; Munakata, McClelland, Johnson, & Siegler, 1997; Strohner & Nelson, 1974).”
A Comparative Analysis of the Distributive Property in U.S. and Chinese Elementary Mathematics Textbooks (2010, background): “First, there is little disagreement that curricula have a large impact on learning (Ball & Cohen 1996; Porter, 1989) principally through textbook presentation, including problem contexts, types of problems, and sequences of presenting the concepts (Hamann, & Ashcraft, 1986; Li, Ding, Capraro & Capra”
Middle School Mathematics Teachers' Knowledge of Students' Understanding of Core Algebraic Concepts: Equal Sign and Variable (2007, background): “Students’ extensive prior school exposure to the equal sign, coupled with the lack of instructional attention the symbol receives in the teachers’ curricular materials (documented by McNeil et al., 2006 ), were likely contributors to teachers’ overestimation of students’ relational understanding.”
A Change–Resistance Account of Children's Difficulties Understanding Mathematical Equivalence (2014, background): “Since then, studies have shown that children in China, Korea, and Turkey better understand math equivalence than their peers of the same age in the United States (Capraro et al., 2010).”
Continuity in Representation Between Children and Adults: Arithmetic Knowledge Hinders Undergraduates' Algebraic Problem Solving (2010, background): “This finding is troublesome, given that equations with operations on both sides of the equal sign are more likely than other equation formats to elicit correct, relational interpretations of the equal sign (McNeil & Alibali, 2005a; McNeil et al., 2006).”
Does Understanding the Equal Sign Matter? Evidence from Solving Equations (2006, background): “One concept that is fundamental to algebra understanding and that has received considerable research attention is that of equality and, in particular, understanding of the equal sign (e.g., Alibali, 1999; Behr, Erlwanger, & Nichols, 1980; Falkner, Levi, & Carpenter, 1999; Kieran, 1981; McNeil & Ali”
A Longitudinal Examination of Middle School Students' Understanding of the Equal Sign and Equivalent Equations (2007, background): “, 38 + 27 = ), which is compatible with the interpretation that the equal sign means “find the total” or “put the answer” (McNeil et al., 2006).”