eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
These lessons show how to maximize instruction that prepares students for formal algebra. Through a series of investigations, students build their proficiency with key algebraic concepts. Connections between arithmetic and algebra are made through the use of drawings, tables, graphs, words, and symbols. Lessons include a technology component with suggestions for teaching with graphing calculators.
Like algebra at any level, early algebra is a way to explore, analyse, represent and generalise mathematical ideas and relationships. This book shows that children can and do engage in generalising about numbers and operations as their mathematical experiences expand. The authors identify and examine five big ideas and associated essential understandings for developing algebraic thinking in grades 3-5. The big ideas relate to the fundamental properties of number and operations, the use of the equals sign to represent equivalence, variables as efficient tools for representing mathematical ideas, quantitative reasoning as a way to understand mathematical relationships and functional thinking to generalise relationships between covarying quantities. The book examines challenges in teaching, learning and assessment and is interspersed with questions for teachers’ reflection.
The lessons in this book introduce basic algebraic concepts to students in the primary grades. Manipulative materials, problem-solving investigations, games, and real-world and imaginary contexts support arithmetic learning while introducing ideas basic to algebra, including patterns, equivalence, and graphing.
'Mason, Graham, and Johnston-Wilder have admirably succeeded in casting most of school algebra in terms of generalisation activity? not just the typical numerical and geometric pattern-based work, but also solving quadratics and simultaneous equations, graphing equations, and factoring. The authors raise our awareness of the scope of generalization and of the power of using this as a lens not just for algebra but for all of mathematics!' - Professor Carolyn Kieran, Departement de Mathematiques, Universite du Quebec a Montreal Algebra has always been a watershed for pupils learning mathematics. This book will enable you to think about yourself as a learner of algebra in a new way, and thus to teach algebra more successfully, overcoming difficulties and building upon skills that all learners have. This book is based on teaching principles developed by the team at The Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education which has a 20-year track record of innovative approaches to teaching and learning algebra. Written for teachers working with pupils aged 7-16, it includes numerous tasks ready for adaption for your teaching and discusses principles that teachers have found useful in preparing and conducting lessons. This is a 'must have' resource for all teachers of mathematics, primary or secondary, and their support staff. Anyone who wishes to create an understanding and enthusiasm for algebra, based upon firm research and effective practice, will enjoy this book. This book is the course reader for The Open University Course ME625 Developing Algebraic Thinking
Fostering Algebraic Thinking is a timely and welcome resource for middle and high school teachers hoping to ease their students' transition to algebra.
In this volume, the authors address the development of students’ algebraic thinking in the elementary and middle school grades from curricular, cognitive, and instructional perspectives. The volume is also international in nature, thus promoting a global dialogue on the topic of early Algebraization.
This important new book synthesizes relevant research on the learning of mathematics from birth into the primary grades from the full range of these complementary perspectives. At the core of early math experts Julie Sarama and Douglas Clements's theoretical and empirical frameworks are learning trajectories—detailed descriptions of children’s thinking as they learn to achieve specific goals in a mathematical domain, alongside a related set of instructional tasks designed to engender those mental processes and move children through a developmental progression of levels of thinking. Rooted in basic issues of thinking, learning, and teaching, this groundbreaking body of research illuminates foundational topics on the learning of mathematics with practical and theoretical implications for all ages. Those implications are especially important in addressing equity concerns, as understanding the level of thinking of the class and the individuals within it, is key in serving the needs of all children.
IMPACT (Interweaving Mathematics Pedagogy and Content for Teaching) is an exciting new series of texts for teacher education which aims to advance the learning and teaching of mathematics by integrating mathematics content with the broader research and theoretical base of mathematics education. The Learning and Teaching of Algebra provides a pedagogical framework for the teaching and learning of algebra grounded in theory and research. Areas covered include: • Algebra: Setting the Scene • Some Lessons From History • Seeing Algebra Through the Eyes of a Learner • Emphases in Algebra Teaching • Algebra Education in the Digital Era This guide will be essential reading for trainee and qualified teachers of mathematics, graduate students, curriculum developers, researchers and all those who are interested in the "problématique" of teaching and learning algebra. It allows you to get involved in the wealth of knowledge that teachers can draw upon to assist learners, helping you gain the insights that mastering algebra provides.
