A Longitudinal Investigation into Children's Understanding of Number Patterns and the Consequent Emergence of Algebraic Concepts

Abstract

In response to the problems associated with children's initial understanding of algebraic concepts, the use of number patterns has been recommended to provide a context to facilitate the development of algebraic thought. These algebraic concepts were conceived to emerge from arithmetic thinking. This study investigates children's perceptions of number patterns, how these perceptions are related to the use of symbolic notation, and if these perceptions change over time. To assist in interpreting the data the SOLO Taxonomy has been used as a theoretical framework. The issues of this study were addressed as a number of specific research questions organised into four themes. In Theme I a small number of discrete categories were identified that facilitated the reliable coding of children's natural language pattern descriptions and their use of symbolic notation.