Generalization strategies and representations used by final-year elementary school students
artículo original
Fecha
2022Autor
Ureña Alpízar, Jason de Jesús
Ramírez Uclés, Rafael
Cañadas Santiago, María Consuelo
Molina González, Marta
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Recent research has highlighted the role of functional relationships
in introducing elementary school students to algebraic thinking. This
functional approach is here considered to study essential components
of algebraic thinking such as generalization and its representation,
as well as the strategies used by students and their connection
with generalization. This paper jointly describes the strategies and
representations of generalization used by a group of 33 sixth-year
elementary school students, with no former algebraic training, in two
generalization tasks involving a functional relationship. The strategies
applied by the students differed depending on whether they
were working on specific or general cases. To answer questions on
near specific cases they resorted to counting or additive operational
strategies. As higher values or indeterminate quantities were considered,
the strategies diversified. The correspondence strategy was the
most used and the common approach when students generalized.
Students were able to generalize verbally as well as symbolically and
varied their strategies flexibly when changing from specific to general
cases, showing a clear preference for a functional approach in
the latter.