The Development of Children's Algebraic Thinking: The Impact of a Comprehensive Early Algebra Intervention in Third Grade.

By M. Blanton, Ana C. Stephens, Eric J. Knuth, Angela Murphy Gardiner, Isil Isler, Jee-Seon Kim. 2015

249 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article reports results from a study investigating the impact of a sustained, comprehensive early algebra intervention in third grade. Participants included 106 students; 39 received the early algebra intervention, and 67 received their district’s regularly planned mathematics instruction. We share and discuss students’ responses to a written preand post-assessment that addressed their understanding of several big ideas in the area of early algebra, including mathematical equivalence and equations, generalizing arithmetic, and functional thinking. We found that the intervention group significantly outperformed the nonintervention group and was more apt by posttest to use algebraic strategies to solve problems. Given the multitude of studies among adolescents documenting students’ difficulties with algebra and the serious consequences of these difficulties, an important contribution of this research is the finding that—provided the appropriate instruction—children are capable of engaging successfully with a broad and diverse set of big algebraic ideas.

Subfields: Education, Statistics and Probability

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Citations in the corpus

Does Early Algebra Matter? The Effectiveness of an Early Algebra Intervention in Grades 3 to 5 (2019, methodology): “These studies showed statistically significant differences favoring students who were taught the intervention in comparison to their peers who received only regular instruction (see, e.g., Blanton et al., 2015; Blanton, Isler, et al., 2018).”
Children’s Use of Variables and Variable Notation to Represent Their Algebraic Ideas (2015, background): “…school students (grades 3–5) have had early algebra experiences that include regular use of variables, they outperform comparison students on assessment items that include, among others, variables and algebraic expressions (Blanton et al., 2015; Brizuela, Martinez, & Cayton-Hodges, 2013).”
A Learning Progression for Elementary Students’ Functional Thinking (2017, background): “The ordering of levels of sophistication in a progression can be informed by both the shifts observed in student thinking over time as well as the types of thinking that might be viewed as more sophisticated from a disciplinary perspective (e.g., Battista, 2004; Blanton et al., 2015).”